Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff has made up lost ground in a key leadership index after hitting a campaign low, but he remains well back from his Conservative and New Democrat counterparts, according to new poll numbers.
NDP Leader Jack Layton and Prime Minister Stephen Harper both dipped while they jostle for first place in a leadership poll conducted by Nanos Research for CTV and the Globe and Mail.
Layton leads in the trust category although he is statistically tied with Harper when it comes to competence and vision for the country.
Ignatieff is running a distant third in all three categories, although his numbers have jumped at the expense of his rivals.
Here is how the party leaders rank in the daily leadership index, which is an aggregate score consisting of trust, leadership and vision:
- Conservative Leader Stephen Harper: 94.5
- NDP Leader Jack Layton: 80.5
- Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff: 45.2
- Green Party Leader Elizabeth May: 11.8
- Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe: 9.5
Layton has been riding a recent wave of support that has launched his party into second place behind the Conservatives. The Liberals have seen their poll numbers inch downward over the past several days while the Conservatives have maintained their lead.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe's leadership numbers have declined over the course of the campaign.
As Layton's popularity has surged, he has became the focus of intense scrutiny and the focus of attacks by both the Liberals and the Conservatives, who have accused him of putting forward an election platform that isn't fully costed out or economically sound.
But many Canadians seem to be responding to Layton's calls for a fresh alternative from the traditional ruling parties, with less than 48 hours to go until polls open.
Methodology
A national random telephone survey is conducted nightly by Nanos Research throughout the campaign. Each evening a new group of 400 eligible voters are interviewed. The daily tracking figures are based on a three-day rolling sample comprised of 1,200 interviews. To update the tracking a new day of interviewing is added and the oldest day dropped. The margin of error for a survey of 1,200 respondents is plus-minus 2.8%, 19 times out of 20.
