Canada's ruling Liberals suffered more aftershocks from a financial scandal on Tuesday when a poll showed their public support had sunk to a 12-year low and a veteran legislator quit the party, saying he had lost confidence in Prime Minister Paul Martin.
Ottawa has been in turmoil since a report last week showed US$76 million in funds designed to promote national unity in French-speaking Quebec had gone instead to advertising firms with close Liberal ties, prompting questions about who knew what and who should take the blame.
An Ipsos-Reid poll for the Globe and Mail newspaper and CTV Television showed support for Liberals fell to 35 percent, down from 39 percent just after the report was released last Tuesday and from 48 percent in January.
The last time the Liberals recorded 35 percent public support was in January, 1992, when they were in opposition.
Support for the opposition Conservatives rose to 27 percent from 24 percent last week and 19 percent last month. Backing for the left-leaning New Democrats fell to 17 percent from 18 percent last week, compared with 16 percent last month.
Martin, who came to power in December, declined to say whether he will put off an election, which aides had earlier tipped for May 10. The new poll indicates that if the Liberals went for a May vote, they would be returned with a minority government.
Stephen Harper, vying for the leadership of the Conservatives, told reporters the controversy had seriously boosted his party's chances of taking power.
"[Martin's] chances of achieving a majority government are not that good and so anything can happen," he said.
Martin has called an inquiry into the scandal, which took place from 1997 to 2001 when he was finance minister under former Prime Minister Jean Chretien. He has promised to quit if the inquiry shows he was implicated.
The Liberals suffered another blow on Tuesday when legislator John Bryden said he had quit the party and was considering whether to join the Conservatives.
Bryden, 60, said he was not sure the public felt it could trust the Liberals any more and said Martin had badly mishandled the scandal by trying to blame Chretien, his long-time political rival.
"I have lost confidence in Mr Martin because he has caused problems inside the Liberal Party," he told a news conference.
An aide to Martin called Bryden's decision "disappointing and a little puzzling" and said the prime minister had to balance the need for Canadians to learn more about the scandal with the need to seek a new mandate from the voters.
"If we get it right, the results will speak for themselves. If we get it wrong, the results will still speak for themselves," the aide said.
The poll showed that 65 percent of voters felt an election should not be held until the inquiry is complete.
"When you get down in the territory of 35 percent, you don't win majorities," Ipsos-Reid president Darrell Bricker told the Globe and Mail.
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