(EKOS)

The federal Conservatives continue to garner more support than the Liberals, but their lead is narrowing, a new EKOS opinion poll suggests.

The poll, released exclusively to CBC, suggests that 31.4 per cent of respondents would vote for the Tories if an election were held today, compared with 26.8 per cent who would back the Liberals.

The Tories' lead of 4.6 percentage points over the Liberals is down from the 5.5-percentage-point spread of last week and a lead of up to 10 percentage points last month.

Support for the other parties was stable, according to this week's telephone poll. The NDP had 16.6 per cent support of respondents, while 12.6 per cent backed the Green Party and 8.9 per cent preferred the Bloc Québécois.

The poll also suggests that close to half of Canadians (48.1 per cent) felt that the country is moving in the right direction while 39.4 per cent felt it is moving in the wrong direction.

Similar to previous weeks, close to half of Canadians (48.6 per cent) felt the government is moving in the wrong direction, suggesting that Canadians are not associating the direction of the country with the direction of the government.

The random survey of 1,789 Canadians aged 18 and over was conducted June 2-8 and carries a margin of error of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.