On broad support

It remains to be seen whether they'll be able to move votes in an election campaign. But there doesn't seem to be much room for doubt that the NDP holds the strongest position when it comes to public perceptions of its signature policies:

The latest Canadian Press-Harris Decima survey suggests Canadians are siding with the Liberals and the NDP on the issue of corporate tax cuts and help for the elderly.

The show of support for the NDP's demand that the next budget include an increase in the guaranteed income supplement for seniors was the most striking, with 87 per cent of those polled backing the idea.
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Meanwhile, the New Democrats say their price tag for supporting the March 22 budget and avoiding an election includes help for retired seniors and removing the GST levy from home heating, which not surprisingly gets 79 per cent backing in the poll.

Of course, most of the political debate over the past couple of years has focused on the issues being pressed by the Cons and Libs - which explains in part why they don't have any such high numbers among their proposals. But it's not as if the NDP's proposals haven't come under some scrutiny as well, particularly from the Cons trying to pretend that we can't afford to spend a dime on anything new other than prisons, planes and PR. And the fact that the NDP can nonetheless count on 4 out of 5 Canadians backing its main platform planks has to make for a major advantage if we're indeed headed to the polls.