On room for growth

Sure, the latest party polling is great enough news for the NDP. But what may be even more noteworthy is the potential for even more improvement based on the leadership preferences also observed by Angus Reid:

The performance of NDP leader Jack Layton in the televised debates has led to the highest approval rating recorded by any Canadian federal politician in an Angus Reid Public Opinion poll over the past three years. Half of Canadians (50%) approve of the way Layton is doing his job.

One third of respondents approve of Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper (33%), while one-in-four feel the same way about both Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff (24%) and Green Party leader Elizabeth May (also 24%).

Layton’s momentum score stands at +26, with more than a third of Canadians (36%) saying that they now have an improved opinion of the NDP leader. The remaining contenders all posted negative momentum scores.

There is a virtual tie in the preferred Prime Minister question, with large proportions of Canadians choosing either Harper (28%) or Layton (27%) for the country’s top political job. Ignatieff is a distant third with 13 per cent, while Duceppe and May are in single digits.

Which means that the NDP isn't merely converting some of Layton's usual leadership advantage into temporary voting intentions.

Instead, it's improved both its party and leader scores by a substantial amount during the course of the campaign. And that means that there's room to grow even between the NDP's party scores and Layton's preferred Prime Minister number - which in turn can only raise the hopes that he'll reach that position by the end of the campaign.