Canadians hold greatest trust in the Conservatives for making the right decisions in the country's interests — but they think the NDP does the best job of representing voters’ views, according to a newly released online survey by Nanos Research.

The survey, provided exclusively to CBC News, offers fresh insight into how Canadians think the federal parties are doing one year after the last federal election.

Asked what federal party is best at making decisions in the long-term interests of Canada, 27 per cent cited the Conservative Party, 21 per cent pointed to the NDP and 17 per cent lauded the Liberal Party.

But Nik Nanos, President of Nanos Research, noted a large swath of respondents were either undecided or didn’t answer – showing that no party has a clear advantage.

“It’s kind of like if you’re in the desert, it’s like drinking a dirty glass of water,” he told CBC's Power & Politics host Evan Solomon. “No party has what I'll say is the upper hand on long-term decisions, because there’s still a significant number of Canadians who just aren’t happy with any of the federal parties.”

The Conservatives also emerged in the lead on the question of which party Canadians believe is best at managing policy priorities in a changing situation. According to the poll, 25 per cent picked the Conservatives, 20 per cent the NDP and 16 per cent chose the Liberals.

The survey also asked which federal party is best at representing the views of voters who elected them. On that question, 31 per cent said the NDP was doing the best job, compared to 21 per cent who said the Conservatives were the top representative. Another 12 per cent said the Liberal Party is best for standing up for voters’ interests.

The Nanos Research online survey of 1,002 Canadians was conducted between April 13-14, 2012.