Weekly Projection Update - Conservatives by Seven

The Conservatives still hold a seven seat lead on the Liberals. There have been no changes to the seat count. A remarkable thing about the polls in recent weeks, and even months, is the consistency. Even if a poll does show some movement, another one comes along that shows movement in the other direction, evening things out.

Nationally, the Liberals and NDP have traded 0.1 points, reducing the Liberal lead over the Tories to the smallest of margins.

Large regional movements include a 0.5-point loss for the Conservatives and a 0.3-point gain for the Greens in British Columbia, and a 0.3-point gain in the Prairies for the Liberals.

Because Elizabeth May has announced she'll be running on the West Coast, I've changed the projection model so that a Green seat win in Atlantic Canada becomes much more unlikely. However, considering the Greens are currently projected to do best in British Columbia, the seat choice by Ms. May seems like a good one. It will be interesting to see if we BC shows a small bump for the Greens over the next few weeks.

Another region to watch will be Atlantic Canada. The electoral victory of the provincial NDP in Nova Scotia has also paid off for Jack Layton's troops, and with the convention being held in Halifax over the weekend, the NDP may be able to sustain some of that momentum into the fall. Of course, we'll have to wait and see if the convention gives a bump to the party at all in the province.

And maybe, just maybe, next week we'll be calling them the Democratic Party of Canada, or DPC. Change is fun.