Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre has a commanding lead over the other leadership hopefuls, with a new poll showing nearly half respondents selected him as their top choice. .According to a Postmedia-Léger survey of 1,501 Canadians, Poilievre was selected as the best to be the next Conservative leader by 48% of respondents, compared to just 14% for the second most popular choice, Jean Charest..Patrick Brown was the top choice of 4% of respondents, putting him in third place. The Brampton mayor had not yet been disqualified from the race when the survey was taken..Leslyn Lewis was named by 3% of respondents as being the best candidate, while Scott Aitchison and Roman Baber were both selected by 1%. There remained 26% of respondents who said they were undecided, while another 3% didn’t choose any of the candidates..Andrew Enns, an executive vice-president at Léger, said while these are not the opinions of "strictly voting members," it will not be difficult to envision "who won’t do well with members when [Poilievre] is this strong with supporters.”.Enns also noted stability in candidate support in the race, as the leadership support numbers were the same as a mid-June Léger Conservative leadership survey for all candidates except for Poilievre, whose support grew from 44%..“It's interesting the results for the candidates have been very consistent over the course of the campaign. Charest, Brown — still in it when we polled — and Lewis have not moved since we last asked the question in June and they did not move much from May," Enns said..“It would suggest that opinions among supporters formed early in this race and have been fairly locked-in since.”.Despite Conservatives' enthusiasm for Poilievre, a separate poll released Tuesday by Léger for The Canadian Press, the leader of the Conservative Party will have to overcome a deficit to Liberal Party of Canada support..That survey found 32% of respondents supported the Liberals, 28% supported the Conservatives and 21% supported the New Democratic Party. The Bloc Québécois drew 7% support nationally, the Peoples Party of Canada was at 5%, and the Green Party of Canada sat at 4%.
