During the final push in the federal election campaign, the Liberal and Conservative party spin doctors were doing their best to make numbers look favourable after the latest poll showed the Grits with a six-point lead over the Tories among decided voters.
The poll, conducted by Ipsos-Reid for CTV and The Globe and Mail and published Tuesday, shows the Liberals with 34 per cent support of decided voters, as compared with 28 per cent for the Tories and 16 per cent for the NDP.
The largest indicator of a change in support came in Ontario, where the Liberals have moved back up to their 42 per cent support they had enjoyed before the election was called, while the Tories have dropped eight points to 30 per cent in Ontario. The NDP is at 20 per cent in the province, considered to be key in the election as it has 106 of the country's 308 seats.
However, Rhonda Walker, a Conservative spokeswoman, told a CBC Newsworld panel Tuesday that the Tories are not paying attention to numbers suggesting their momentum is slipping and the Liberals are gaining.
”You know, what we hear at the doors is still not being reflected in the papers. And we're still waiting for that poll on June 28th [election day].”
She added: ”There are some numbers that have been consistent throughout this election, which is the number of Canadians that want a change. And want an alternative to a Liberal government that has a legacy of waste, mismanagement, and corruption.”
Heidi Bonnell, a Liberal spokeswoman, told the panel that the numbers reflect voters taking another look at the Liberals after a closer examination of what Stephen Harper's Conservatives are all about.
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”They are... moving away from the Stephen Harper proposals and from the blue platform.”
Ms. Bonnell admitted that there is still ”a lot of work to be done in the next few days.”
It's becoming increasingly likely that voters will elect a minority government next Monday. But it's an intensely tight race between the Conservatives and Grits over which party will win that majority.
Darrell Bricker, Ipsos-Reid President, told The Globe and Mail that the electorate is now ”fairly settled” except for the key province of Ontario.
”There's no way to know if this is a blip there or something more.”
Liberal strategists say they sense a change in the mood of the electorate, while Tory strategists say they will stay on message for the rest of the campaign.
The Liberals, for their part, are trying to keep health care at the top of the agenda.
Liberal Leader Paul Martin accused Mr. Harper and Alberta Premier Ralph Klein of working together on provincial health-care changes in Alberta coming just after the election is over.
The Liberals also accused Mr. Harper of having a hidden agenda after a Conservative proposal to allow Air Canada to move out of Montreal by was revealed to have been omitted from the Conservative Party's election policy booklet.
Mr. Harper's Liberal and Bloc Québécois opponents charged they would weaken the airline's bilingualism requirements.
"You tell us you'll protect health care with renewed revenues. The question for the last six days, is what are you people going to cut to make up are for shortfall in the platform -- health care, transfers for post secondary education?.. You have to come clean on the hidden agenda before Monday," Ms. Bonnell said of the Tories.
NDP spokesman Brad Lavigne also said that the Harper government cannot be trusted.
"I don't believe the Conservative Party under Stephen Harper has any credibility on the issue of health care. There's no question that he's going to increase privatization," Mr. Lavigne told the panel.
During a campaign stop Tuesday in Sault Ste. Marie, Mr. Harper said Mr. Martin could have stopped Ontario's newly introduced health care premiums if he was really a champion of medicare.
He said Mr. Martin is using the election to divide Canadians.
The poll suggested the Liberal gains were made mostly at the expense of the Conservatives, but also revealed a disturbing footnote for the NDP, suggesting that their support among female voters was being siphoned off to Mr. Martin's team.
“That doesn't correspond to what we're seeing on the ground,” Mr. Layton said during a campaign stop on Tuesday.
NDP strategists have done a considerable amount of hand wringing over the possibility of a so-called strategic vote, where NDP supporters back the Liberals in order to halt Mr. Harper's Conservatives that enjoyed a mid-campaign surge in support.
Even with the apparent Liberal rebound, the possibility that Canadians will elect a minority government next Monday is still very real.
On Monday, both Mr. Layton and Mr. Martin began laying their cards on the table in what is expected to be a Liberal-NDP alliance in a minority Parliament.
Mr. Martin told the Winnipeg Free Press that he's willing to look at the New Democratic proposal for proportional representation.
Mr. Layton has effectively jettisoned one of his key campaign promises, by saying the party's proposal for a $3.1-billion inheritance tax would be a non-starter in a minority.
In what was the clearest sign that Mr. Layton considers Mr. Martin his partner, the NDP leader restated his demand Tuesday that the Liberals compromise on their proposed debt reduction strategy.
“The Liberals debt reduction plan is reckless,” he said. ”It is a very destructive policy and I call on Mr. Martin to put health, education and the environment ahead of debt reduction.”
Mr. Layton refused to say what other policies he's prepared sacrifice or what else he might demand of the Liberals.
Mr. Martin, Mr. Harper and Mr. Layton will all campaign in Ontario Tuesday, with Mr. Harper taping an interview with CBC's Peter Mansbridge late in the day.
With reports from Drew Fagan and Canadian Press
