Canadian Conservatives lose ground in opinion poll

TORONTO, May 5 (Reuters) Canada's ruling Conservatives are losing voter support and there is little to separate them from the opposition Liberals, according to an opinion poll published today.

The poll, conducted by Ipsos Reid and published by the CanWest group of newspapers, put support for the Conservatives at 35 per cent, compared to 34 per cent for the Liberals.

Support for the Conservatives peaked at 40 per cent in late March but has slipped amid voter concern about the government's environmental policies and Canada's role with NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The Conservatives had 38 per cent support in an April 14 Ipsos Reid poll, while the Liberals had 32 per cent.

The Conservatives were elected in January 2006 but hold only a minority of the seats in parliament and need support from at least one other party to stay in power.

An election is due by January 2011 at the latest but minority governments in Canada tend to last only 18 months, on average.

''It's been a bad couple of weeks,'' pollster Darrell Bricker told the newspaper group. ''This always was a government on training wheels, and the wheels are wobbling.'' The latest poll put support for the left-wing New Democratic Party at 14 per cent and the environmentalist Green Party at 7 per cent. The Greens have no seats in parliament.

Ipsos Reid polled 1,000 Canadians on May 1-3. It says results are accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

REUTERS SBC RK2027