relationship between the federal government and its provincial counterparts. Respondents from Ontario and Atlantic Canada were the most likely to say federal-provincial relations had not improved in the past year.

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All the ratings are more positive for the Prime Minister than a year ago, in which 56 per cent of respondents gave a poor or very poor grade to the Conservatives and 55 per cent said the country is on the wrong track. But the last two years' responses are historically low since Nanos began asking the questions in 2007.

"What we know empirically is that 2013 was a very bad year for Stephen Harper and the Conservatives," Nik Nanos, chairman of Nanos Research, said. "2014 is a little better, but generally the view of many Canadians,which support for the Conservatives dropped in 2013 and has slowly increased in the months since. In ThreeHundredEight.com's latest average of federal polls, the Liberals had the support of 36 per cent against 32 per cent for the Conservatives and 20 per cent for the NDP. A year ago, in December, 2013, the Conservatives averaged only 26 per cent, with the Liberals at 32 per cent and the NDP at 23 per cent. Polls taken this fall have shown a close race heading into next year's scheduled federal election.

The Conservatives won a parliamentary majority in the 2011 election with 39.6 per cent of the popular vote, against 30.6 per cent for the NDP and 26.3 per cent for the Liberals.