Another poll has nothing but bad news for the Liberals.

This Angus-Reid poll focus on how the opposition parties measure up against each other. The governing Conservatives are not part of the question.

Under Stephane Dion, over 20% of the people who voted Liberal in 2006 would not vote for the Liberals if an election was held today:

The Grits are also only holding on to 78 per cent of those who voted for the Paul Martin-led Liberals in 2006.

OK, that bears repeating.

One in five people who voted for Paul Martin would rather have him back that vote for Stephane Dion.

In other words, the Liberal Party was better off with Paul Martin in charge.

To put it yet another way, looking at these numbers, a supporter of the Liberal Party, even a supporter of Stephane Dion, would have to conclude that a year after Stephane Dion took over as leader of the party, the party has taken a major step backward.

Moving forward would mean undoing a year of Stephane Dion leadership just to get back to the starting point.

And if there is any doubt that the problem is in large part because of Stephane Dion, the leadership part of the poll will put any doubt to rest:

New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jack Layton currently enjoys a higher level of public confidence than two other national opposition figures, an Angus Reid Strategies poll has found.

In the online survey of a representative national sample, 34 per cent of respondents believe Layton would make a good prime minister of Canada, including 41 per cent of respondents aged 18-34.

In contrast, less than a quarter of respondents (23%) think Liberal leader Stephane Dion would make a good head of government.

Green Party leader Elizabeth May is seen as a possible good prime minister by 14 per cent of respondents.

Jack Layton is 11% ahead of Stephane Dion, who in turn is 9% ahead of Elizabeth May.

It is mathematically easier for Elizabeth May to overtake Stephane Dion than it is for Stephane Dion to overtake Jack Layton when it comes to the question of who would make a good prime minister.

And now consider this. The deal between the Liberal Party and the Green Party was for the Liberals to withdraw the candidate from Central Nova, where Elizabeth May is the Green Party candidate, in return for an endorsement of Stephane Dion as prime minister by Elizabeth May. The idea was to cooperate to defeat the Conservatives in the next election. I wonder how smart that decision seems now. You have to think that plenty of Green Party members are thinking May backed the wrong horse.

Maybe they can meet up for drinks with all those Liberals who are thinking exactly the same thing.