Canada's ruling Conservative Party has opened up a comfortable lead over the major rival Liberal Party, according to a new poll released Thursday.

The EKOS poll put the Conservatives at 37 percent support, as compared with 29.9 percent for the Liberals. The New Democratic Party (NDP) followed with 13.8 percent, the Green Party with 10.2 percent and the Bloc Quebecois with 9.1 percent, according to the CBC, which commissioned the survey.

In last week's poll, the Conservatives were at 35.1 percent support and the Liberals 29.9 percent.

Liberal support started to soften two weeks ago, after Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff declared to withdraw support for the Conservative government and force an early election.

The survey also found the Tories making headway in Toronto, with nearly 42 percent support, compared with 37 percent for the Liberals.

The province of Ontario, the most important battleground in an election, remains a tight race.

The survey of 2,706 people was conducted by telephone between Sept. 16 and Sept. 22, 2009 and had an error margin of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Source: Xinhua