More Canadians than ever believe Liberal leader Stephane Dion would make the best prime minister among the leaders of federal political leaders, polling company SES Research says in its latest survey. Dion’s personal popularity has surged, particularly in eastern Canada, says SES, though he still trails Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
SES also found that support for the federal NDP is at its lowest level.
The poll comes out as Harper gets set to shuffle his cabinet this afternoon.
“Today's federal cabinet shuffle is another attempt by the Harper Tories to break away from what has been a neck-and-neck race with the Liberals over the past year,” said Nik Nanos, president of SES Research.
SES says that 23 per cent of respondents to its most recent poll now say that Dion would make the best prime minister. That’s a big jump from just 15 per cent who responded that way back in May.
Still, the man who is Prime Minister — Stephen Harper — was named by 31 per cent of survey respondents as the leader who would be the best prime minister. That’s a slight drop from 33 per cent in the May poll.
When asked who they would vote for, SES found the two leading parties — the Conservatives and Liberals — in a statistical tie, with 36 per cent saying they would vote Conservative and 33 per cent saying they would vote Liberal.
The poll of 1,000 Canadians, conducted between July 28 and August 4, is accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, the pollster says.
Conservative support is up four percentage points since the last SES poll in May. Liberal support remains unchanged.
NDP support has dropped 4 percentage points and now sits at 13 per cent. The Green Party is at 8 per cent, down 2 percentage points from May.
In Quebec, the Bloc Quebecois leads all parties with 41 per cent support of declared voters, up from 35 per cent in May. Conservative fortunes in Quebec are up since May to 22 per cent, from 17 per cent. Liberals are the favourites of 23 per cent of voters, down from 27 per cent. The pollster says the Quebec-only polling numbers have a higher margin of error. SES says they are correct to within 6.7 per cent, 19 times out of 20.