Scores on the Nanos Party Power Index for the two leading parties remain closer than they were over the summer and were unchanged in the week over week tracking. The Index Score for the Liberals registered at 56 points out of 100, the Conservatives were at 53 points, the NDP at 50 points, the Green Party at 31 points and the BQ (Quebec only) at 27 points.
The Nanos Party Power Index methodology comprises a basket of political goods that includes ballot preferences, accessible voters, preferred PM views and evaluations of the leaders. It is modeled similar to a standard confidence index.
On the preferred Prime Minister measure Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was the choice of 32 per cent of Canadians followed by Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau at 29 per cent, NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair at 20 per cent, Green Leader Elizabeth May at three per cent and 15 per cent were unsure.
Accessible voters for the parties also remained unchanged. A series of independent questions were asked to gauge the accessible voters for each federal party. The Liberals have the largest potential upside with 55 per cent of Canadians who would consider voting Liberal.
Forty-four per cent of Canadians would consider voting for the federal NDP, 43 per cent would consider voting for the Conservatives, 26 per cent of Canadians would consider voting Green while in Quebec 34 per cent of voters would consider voting the BQ.
Also of note, concerns about war/terrorism/security remain the second most important issue at 17 per cent, four points behind jobs and the economy which is the most important unprompted issue of concern among Canadians.
