A new Nanos Poll found the federal Conservatives are leading the Liberals by seven percentage points, while the leaders of the two parties are neck-in-neck when it comes to the preferred prime minister..The latest ballot tracking has the Conservatives at 35.6%, followed by the Liberals at 28.3%, the New Democrats at 20.7%, the Bloc Quebecois at 7.4%, the Green Party at 5.8% and the Peoples Party at just 2.1%..But when it comes to the party leader that Canadians prefer as prime minister, Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is the preferred choice at 30%, followed by the Conservative's Pierre Poilievre (27.5%), the New Democrats' Jagmeet Singh (16.2%), the Green's Elizabeth May (4.2%) and the People's Party's Maxime Bernier (2%). Additionally, 16% of Canadians were unsure whom they preferred..The Liberals also lead when it comes to the Nanos Index, which is a composite of a series of measures, such as ballot and leadership impressions. The Liberals have 49.6 points, followed by the Conservatives at 48.6 points, the New Democrats with 46.1 points, the Greens with 32.2 points, the People’s Party 25.3 points..The survey also tracks the top issues for Canadians compared to one month ago. Healthcare remains the number one issue, with 16.5% of Canadians claiming they are mostly concerned with it, compared to 18% in December, while inflation remains the second most important issue (13% compared to 16% in December.).Meanwhile, jobs and the economy became more important of an issue for Canadians (12.1% compared to 11.2% in December), as did the environment (11.9% to 11.1% in December.) The poll found Canadians are less concerned about the cost of housing (4.15), deficits (3.7%), free speech (2.6%), changing the prime minister (2.2%), war (1.3%) and gun control (0.9%)..The data was collected using 1,000 random interviews recruited from landline and cell-line sample of Canadians age 18 years and over, which ended on Jan. 13, 2023.
