MONTREAL (AFP) - Canada’s Conservative Party holds only a four-point lead over the rival Liberals despite Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s efforts to widen its lead ahead of possible elections later in the year, a new poll showed Saturday.

Harper’s Conservatives retain 34 percent support from the voting public, over 30 percent for the Liberals, according to the poll by Ipsos Reid for Canwest News Service and Global Television.

The New Democratic Party holds 14 percent support nationally and the Green Party 11 percent, the poll said.

The survey “finds that national political vote intentions have barely moved, despite an increase of verbal jousting this week that included (Liberal Party leader) Stephane Dion’s insistence that Canadians are ready for an election and Stephen Harper’s threats to bring it on,” Ipsos said in a poll summary.

The poll suggests that the result of any election would be a minority government. But the provincial breakdown, with the Liberals stronger than their rivals in Ontario and Quebec, could give them the chance to lead.

With neither party clearly strongest, the justification for holding a new election remains weak, according to Darrell Bricker, Ipsos Reid president.

“It’s really not in (the Conservatives’) interest to have an election. And the Liberals are behind. So it’s really not in the interest to have an election. So we really wonder what all this rhetoric and chatter is all about,” Bricker said

Courtesy of:http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/080802/canada/canada_politics_poll_1