Prairie offensive

Most of the polls this week haven't looked great for the NDP, but the latest EKOS poll has the NDP on the rise with the dichotomy in decline:

In terms of party support, the Liberals' frontrunner position has slipped almost five points from last week to 34.1 per cent, according to the poll conducted by EKOS Research...

Support also slipped away from Stephen Harper's Conservatives in the first days of the campaign. They dropped two points from last week to stand at 27.4 per cent...

The NDP stands at 18.4 per cent nationally, up from 16.9 per cent last week and the NDP outpaced the Conservatives in both the Prairies (34 per cent versus 27 per cent) and in British Columbia (30 per cent versus 26 per cent.)...

Nightly polling found a gradual decline in Tory support as the week went on, with support dropping from about 34 per cent on Tuesday to 24 per cent on Thursday.

What's more, there doesn't seem to be any artificial advantage to the NDP which would have swayed the numbers in their favour. In fact, Harper went westward a day earlier than Layton to stump for support, though I suppose that could be seen as more a detriment than a benefit to the Cons.

In any event, Harper's PR offensive doesn't seem to have done him anything but harm so far. And if these numbers can hold up, particularly in Western Canada, that'll work wonders to counteract any Ontario fears about a Con government. We can only hope the Cons will keep trending downward and opening the door for the NDP.