Are Canadians paying attention to the campaigns and the election news as it breaks? In the past days the headlines have been full of reports that Stephen Harper hired a close advisor with five fraud convictions -- and the PM's defence is he didn't know it was quite that many. In election-time newsroom-speak that's generally called a bombshell. The Canadian public is apparently unmoved, according to the latest CTV News/Globe/Nanos poll, completed Apr. 5th.

Nothing has changed significantly in the past three days. Conservative support stands at 39.7 per cent, followed by the Liberals at 29.9 per cent, the NDP at 17.4 per cent, the BQ at 8.3 per cent, and the Green Party at 3.8 per cent nationally.

Canadians still lean toward party policy (50.2 per cent) followed by the party leader (21 per cent) and the local candidate (16.4 per cent) as the top vote drivers.

Here are the details:

National Ballot Question: For those parties you would consider voting for federally, could you please rank your top two current local preferences? (Committed voters only -- First Preference)

The numbers in parentheses denote the change from the three-day rolling average of the Nanos Nightly Tracking ending Apr. 4th (n=1,204; committed voters only n=990).

Canada (n=981 committed voters)
Conservative 39.7 per cent (-0.1)
Liberal 29.9 per cent (-0.3)
NDP 17.4 per cent (+0.9)
Bloc Quebecois 8.3 per cent (NC)
Green 3.8 per cent (-0.2)
Undecided 18.3 per cent (+0.5)

Vote Driver Question: Which of the following factors are most important to you today in influencing your vote [Rotate]? (n=1,202)

The numbers in parentheses denote the change from the three day rolling average of the Nanos Nightly Tracking ending on April 4th (n=1,204).

Traditionally Vote for Party 8.6 per cent (+0.9)
Party Leader 21.0 per cent (-1.9)
Party Policies 50.2 per cent (+2.2)
Local Candidate 16.4 per cent (-1.2)
Unsure 3.8 per cent (NC)

A national random telephone survey is conducted nightly by Nanos Research throughout the campaign. Each evening a new group of 400 eligible voters are interviewed. The daily tracking figures are based on a three-day rolling sample comprised of 1,200 interviews. To update the tracking, a new day of interviewing is added and the oldest day dropped. The margin of error for a survey of 1,200 respondents is ±2.8%, 19 times out of 20.

David Beers is editor of The Tyee.