NDP MP Olivia Chow, left, and NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, right, attend the annual Church on Church Street service before Toronto’s Pride Parade on Sunday, June 30, 2013. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michelle Siu)

A new EKOS poll suggests that as Canadians get to know the leader of the NDP, they get to like him a bit better, too.

The survey, conducted between July 4-9, asked 2,900 Canadian adults if they approve or disapprove of how the leader of the Opposition, Thomas Mulcair, is handling his job.

In terms of approval, Mulcair came in at 33 per cent, which is an improvement from previous surveys. His disapproval rating was lower, and notably low for a leader of a political party, at 29 per cent. In an April EKOS poll, Mulcair’s approval rating was 26 per cent, with his disapproval at 30 per cent.

The numbers are good news for Mulcair, who’s often described as “Angry Tom,” and for the NDP, with two years before the next federal election to try and build on these slight gains.

EKOS pollster Frank Graves says increasing public awareness of who Mulcair is shows some correlation to the increase in his approval rating.

Graves adds that the party must have noticed these problems with their leader — who hasn’t been very well known or all that popular among Canadians — and so they’re trying to show the softer side of Mulcair, with a different tone and demeanour.

Conservative strategist Tim Powers says Mulcair’s people will probably be happy with these numbers.

“Mulcair’s challenge has been, while he’s been a good performer in the House of Commons, particularly towards the end of the last session, he hasn’t really connected it has seemed thus far with the electorate,” Powers said.

While many observers praised how Mulcair came out swinging with direct, pointed questions to Prime Minister Stephen Harper over the Wright-Duffy affair in question period, he’s never come near Liberal leader Justin Trudeau’s approval numbers, which have hovered between 40 and 45 per cent.

Trudeau, though, hasn’t received the same type of praise and has stumbled in the House of Commons on occasion, which suggests question period performance doesn’t necessarily mirror personal approval ratings.

Powers added that, to have any chance of making a good showing against Trudeau and Harper in the 2015 election, “it will be important for the NDP to at least get a sense that their leader is, at some level, connecting better with the public.”

The July poll was conducted through interactive voice response technology and surveyed those with landlines and cell phones. The margin of error with the survey is +/-1.8 per cent, 19 times out of 20.