After three months of positive movement on the Nanos Party Power Index, the Conservatives have hit a new 12-month high – although Liberals are still leading the index by three points.

The pulse points:

Liberals score 57 points out of 100

Tories score 54 points, up one point from last week

NDP at 48 points, down one point from last week

Although their score is still lower than the Liberals, the Conservatives have hit a new 12-month high. The Conservative score was last at this level in October 2013, prior to worst of the Senate expenses controversy. (In November 2013, the Senate voted to suspend Mike Duffy.)

The Conservatives’ result appears to be the result of a number of factors including: a repair of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s image; an increased focus on terror and security threats; and a lack of political controversy.

Overall the Liberals registered 57 points out of 100 on the Nanos Party Power Index followed by the Tories with 54 points, the NDP with 48 points, the Green Party with 30 points and the BQ at 26 points (QC only) respectively.

The Nanos Party Power Index methodology comprised a basket of political goods that includes ballot preferences, accessible voters, preferred PM views and evaluations of the leaders. It is modeled similar to a standard confidence index. It is a random telephone survey conducted with live agents, reaching out to Canadians through a land- and cell-line dual frame sample.

The preferred Prime Minister measure remains very tight, with Harper the preference of 33 per cent of Canadians followed by Justin Trudeau at 31 per cent, Thomas Mulcair at 16 per cent, four per prefer Elizabeth May and 14 per cent were unsure.

When one gauges the pool of accessible voters for each of the parties through a series of independent questions, 53 per cent would consider voting for the federal Liberals, 45 per cent would consider voting for the NDP, 45 per cent would consider voting for the Conservatives and 27 per cent would consider voting for the Green Party.