The federal election campaign officially kicked off today and a new poll suggests we may be in for a tight race.

A Nanos Research ballot tracking survey released Sunday asked respondents to rank the top two parties they would consider voting for in the federal election and found that a very slim margin of voters favoured The Conservatives.

Of those who participated in the telephone survey, 31.5 per cent said they would support the Conservative Party, followed by 30.1 per cent who said they would support the NDP and 29.3 per cent who claimed to support the Liberals.

Regionally, the Conservatives had their strongest base in the Prairies, where Harper’s Tories collected 52 per cent support. The Conservatives also were also the most favoured party in Ontario with 36.5 per cent support. The Conservative Party’s weakest regions were in Atlantic Canada (18 per cent) and Quebec (17.6 per cent).

The Liberal Party found its strongest base in Atlantic Canada with 48 per cent of respondents in the region claiming to support Trudeau’s Liberals. Conversely, The Liberals were weakest in the Prairies with only 18 per cent support.

The NDP was the top pick for respondents in Quebec, with 36 per cent vowing to support for Mulcair’s New Democrats. The NDP also had 37 per cent support in British Columbia and maintained steady support (mid-to -high 20 per cent range) in all other regions across the country.

“The trend has been favouring the New Democrats,” Nik Nanos, president of Nanos Research, told CTV News on Sunday.

But given the lengthy election campaign, Nanos said it is anyone’s guess how it will all play out on election day.

The telephone survey was conducted using random interviews with 1,000 Canadians, 18 years of age or over, using a four-week rolling average of 250 respondents every week ending July 31. The poll is considered accurate to plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.