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The federal Liberals are riding a wave of popularity, according to a new Nanos poll, with the party showing gains in B.C., Quebec and among Canadians over 60 years of age.

According to results of the weekly Nanos Party Power Index, 58.5 per cent of Canadians would consider voting for the Liberals, which is a 12-month high for the party. The NDP is in second place with 45.1 per cent, while the Conservatives have 40.2 per cent and 27.8 per cent would consider voting for the Green Party.

The Liberals also gained strength on the Canada Party Power Index, which considers first and second vote preferences; whether the respondent would consider voting for the party; first and second preferences for prime minister; and whether the respondent believes the current leader has the quality to be a good leader.

This week, the Liberals stand at 59.1 points out of 100, which is a new 12-month high, followed by the Conservatives at 48.4 points, the NDP at 47.6 points, and the Green Party at 30.7 points.

Nik Nanos, president of Nanos Research, said it was a good summer for Trudeau.

He has cruised through the barbecue circuit and is trending up, even though he hasnt put a lot in the window on the public policy front, Nanos said on CTVs Power Play.

When asked about preferred prime minister, 34 per cent of those surveyed said Justin Trudeau is their preferred choice for Canadas next prime minister, which is a 12-month high for the Liberal leader.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is trailing behind with 27.7 per cent of support, while NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair is at 16.9 per cent, and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May holds 4.8 per cent.

But despite it being pretty clear that Canadians are favouring Trudeau, Nanos said those numbers could change closer to election time.

The reality is, when you dont put out platform ideas, there is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- to repel voters, he said. In a way, this is almost an artificial honeymoon. Harper is basically shadowboxing with Justin Trudeau, theres no policies or platform for him to take a punch at.

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Liberal strength climbs in all measures of Nanos power index

The federal Liberals are riding a wave of popularity, according to a new Nanos poll, with the party showing gains in B.C., Quebec and among Canadians over 60 years of age.

According to results of the weekly Nanos Party Power Index, 58.5 per cent of Canadians would consider voting for the Liberals, which is a 12-month high for the party. The NDP is in second place with 45.1 per cent, while the Conservatives have 40.2 per cent and 27.8 per cent would consider voting for the Green Party.

The Liberals also gained strength on the Canada Party Power Index, which considers first and second vote preferences; whether the respondent would consider voting for the party; first and second preferences for prime minister; and whether the respondent believes the current leader has the quality to be a good leader.

This week, the Liberals stand at 59.1 points out of 100, which is a new 12-month high, followed by the Conservatives at 48.4 points, the NDP at 47.6 points, and the Green Party at 30.7 points.

Nik Nanos, president of Nanos Research, said it was a good summer for Trudeau.

He has cruised through the barbecue circuit and is trending up, even though he hasnt put a lot in the window on the public policy front, Nanos said on CTVs Power Play.

When asked about preferred prime minister, 34 per cent of those surveyed said Justin Trudeau is their preferred choice for Canadas next prime minister, which is a 12-month high for the Liberal leader.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is trailing behind with 27.7 per cent of support, while NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair is at 16.9 per cent, and Green Party Leader Elizabeth May holds 4.8 per cent.

But despite it being pretty clear that Canadians are favouring Trudeau, Nanos said those numbers could change closer to election time.

The reality is, when you dont put out platform ideas, there is nothing -- absolutely nothing -- to repel voters, he said. In a way, this is almost an artificial honeymoon. Harper is basically shadowboxing with Justin Trudeau, theres no policies or platform for him to take a punch at.

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Liberal support climbs in all measures of Nanos power index

CTV Montreal Published Wednesday, September 17, 2014 12:55PM EDT Last Updated Wednesday, September 17, 2014 1:24PM EDT

The provincial government is working on what it calls a 'moderate' version of the Charter of Values.

Premier Couillard said the Liberals would present a bill early on in their mandate, and Justice Minister Stephanie Vallee said she expects to introduce legislation this autumn.

Vallee said her government has learned a few lessons from the Parti Quebecois and its hotly-debated charter project, and will ensure that anything which is introduced will not violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"Let's not forget the intervention made by the Commission des droits de la personne et de la jeunesse [Quebec Human Rights Commission] last year and the [Quebec] bar and all these people that had important things to say," said Vallee. "We're taking it into account."

Vallee said her legislation would allow all religious symbols but place limits on the burka, and the niqab, which cover a woman's face, and the chador, a long veil which covers the hair and arms and is seen as a symbol of religious oppression.

In 2010 the then-Liberal government introduced Bill 94, which introduced similar restrictions, but was never adopted.

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Quebec Liberals working on 'moderate' Charter of Values

Conservatives and liberals do not smell the same to potential mates. According to a study published this month in the American Journal of Political Science, people can literally sniff out ideology and this may explain why so many couples share political beliefs. Or, as the studys title says, Assortative Mating on Ideology Could Operate Through Olfactory Cues.

Researchers led by Brown University political scientist Rose McDermott found that, to a small but significant degree, people prefer the body odor of those who vote asthey do.

Previous studies showed long-term mates are more similar when it comes to politics than anything else besides religion. Researchersset out to determine whether this is a purely socially driven phenomenon, or whetherbiology plays a role.

To test the link between smell and party affiliation, researchers rounded up 146 people aged 18 to 40 from a large city in the northeast United States. They used a seven-point scale to determine where they fell on the political spectrum. They sent 21 of these 10 liberals and 11 conservatives home with fragrance-free soap and shampoo and a gauze pad taped to their armpit. The subjects were told not to smoke, drink, use deodorant or perfume, have sex, eat fragrant foods, sleep with people or pets or linger near strong odors.

They returned the stinky armpit pads 24 hours later. Then 125 participants sniffed the stinky pads, taking a break between whiffs to cleanse their nasal palate with the aroma of peppermint oil. The sniffers, who never saw the people whose smells they were evaluating, then rated the attractiveness of each armpit sample on a 1 to 5 scale.

The subjects found the smell of those more ideologically similar to themselves more attractive than those with opposing views.

It appears nature stacks the deck to make politically similar partners more attractive to each other in unconscious ways, the researchers wrote.

Evolution might explain it. Parental similarity in values increases the likelihood that such individuals may be able to say together long enough to raise their children successfully into adulthood, the researchers wrote.

Or, in other words, youre more likely to raise children with someone you agree with than someone you dont. And smell tips you off on your chances of long-term relationship success.

The link between smell and political preference may also be related to how parents transfer their preferences for certain smells to their children. Humans, including mothers, spend most of their time around ideologically similar others, the researcherswrote. If social attitudes are linked to odor, as the literature suggests, then one mechanism that odor preferences transfer from parents to children may operate through their mothers choice of mate.In this way, social processes may drive some of the pathways by which individuals come to prefer those whose ideological smell matches their own.

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Study: Liberals and conservatives sniff out like-minded mates by body odor

Stephen Harper is an election victory away from entering the pantheon of Canadas longest-serving prime ministers and cementing his Conservative agenda in a country dominated by Liberals for most of the past century.

Standing in his way is the heir to that Liberal legacy.

In just over a year as Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau, 42, has emerged as the most serious challenger to Harpers nine-year reign, bringing back from the brink of political extinction the party his father Pierre led for 16 years.

Harper and Trudeau, along with leader Tom Mulcair of the New Democratic Party, are already gearing up for an election scheduled for no later than October 2015, as parliament returns today from a three-month recess.

Public opinion polls now suggest the Liberals are leading and poised to give Harper his toughest political fight since he became prime minister, as he seeks to overcome voter fatigue and scandals that have implicated his office.

To win, Harper has to slow down Trudeau, said Darrell Bricker, a pollster with Ipsos Reid in Toronto who worked for former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, the last Conservative to win a majority before Harper. Justin Trudeau is for real.

According to polling aggregator threehundredeight.com, the Liberals hold a seven percentage point lead over the Conservatives and have led in almost every poll since Trudeau became Liberal leader in April 2013. This represents an abrupt turnaround from the May 2011 general election in which the Liberals fell to third place, a historic low that led some political observers to question the partys future viability.

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harpers success has been his ability to make his party more palatable to suburban voters in eastern Canada and to groups that had historically been more likely to favor the Liberals: immigrants, women and French-speakers. Close

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harpers success has been his ability to make his party... Read More

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Trudeau Blocks Harper Path to History as Liberals Revive