Sons And Daughters Of BBCMF China / Asia Technology

[mick]

Conservatives to gain majority in Canada: poll
Canada's Conservative Party, riding the wave of a Liberal government scandal, will come close to an absolute majority in parliament in the January 23 election, according to a poll released Wednesday. The Conservatives will capture 152 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons ¡X up from their current 98 seats ¡X according to a projection by the polling group Strategic Counsel, published in the Toronto Globe and Mail newspaper. That puts the current opposition party near to an absolute majority, which needs 155 seats. The poll meanwhile projects a plunge in Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberal Party seats to 74, down from the current 133. The poll gives another 60 seats to the separatist Bloc Quebecois and 21 to the left-wing New Democratic Party. The projections were based on data from 3,500 potential voters over the past week. The poll results put Martin's party on the defensive, with officials already looking to a shakeup in case of a defeat, the Globe and Mail reported.