Conservatives make gains in July

Stephen Harper’s Conservatives made gains for the third week in a row on the Nanos party Power Index as Nanos Party Power Index as Tom Mulcair’s NDP stayed steady once again.

Though the NDP stayed atop the index for the 10th week in a row at 55 points out of a possible 100, the Conservatives climbed another point up to 53 points, further shrinking the five-point gap that existed at the beginning of July.

Nanos described the index as a sort of “advanced indicator” that reflects some of the underlying opinions that influence voter behaviour. Though the index isn’t a direct measurement of which party voters are leaning towards, Nanos said an index upswing could soon translate into increased support for Harper’s party.

At the beginning of July, all three leaders were polling around 26 per cent.

On the question of whether the party heads had the qualities of a good leader, Harper also improved, moving two points up to 55 per cent this week. Mulcair still leads this question with 59 per cent of respondents saying he has good leadership qualities, while Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe and Justin Trudeau were third and fourth in this category, respectively, at 47 and 44 per cent.

Though they haven’t seen any real decline in numbers, the New Democrats have effectively levelled out in most categories over the past several weeks. While 50 per cent of voters say they would consider voting for the NDP, they’re down from 52 per cent last week. The Conservatives this week stayed even at 42 per cent, while the Liberals dropped one point to 45 per cent.