Of course if you haven't guessed it by now, I am doing a parody of myself (except for that last sentence, which came from the heart). Why? Seeing today that EKOS is doing "exclusive" polling for the CBC is mildly concerning. EKOS is notorious for using internet polling to juice their numbers, and as we have seen in recent years the left has increasingly taken to the internets to engage in their political warfare. I do frequent web polling and treat it as an unscientific sampling of my audience's opinion, not news. Its purpose is to allow visitors to see how other visitors feel about any given question. But run a poll on which party you support and you will get a sampling of your audience, okay Evan? Originally I put this particular poll up because the Facebook loons were hoarding into my site like hungry orcs, but they stopped visiting right around the time I launched it. Too bad, I'm really going to miss those kids. Their online juvenile delinquency was enlightening if not enjoyable.
The bottom line is that I feel EKOS is getting more attention than it deserves. Trust me, if they are doing exclusive polling for the Soloman Show (I hope to hell the CBC is not paying them tax dollars for it), then I smell a rat. It is entirely possible that the Liberals have slipped ahead of the Tories within the margin of error, but I also remember less than a year ago EKOS had the Liberals in majority territory. It is really cool to have an archive.
As I wrote:
Ignatieff's Poll Dancing
Saturday, April 18, 2009
It is safe to assume that Michael Ignatieff is feeling pretty good about himself right now, as recent poll numbers put him within striking distance of a majority government should the trend line continue. This week’s Ekos Poll has the Liberals at 37%, the Conservatives at 30%, and the NDP at nearly 16% nationally. If these numbers are accurate, it would suggest that that the Tories have lost nearly one million voters in only the past few months, many of those in the past few weeks. Most of that support has shifted to the Liberals, while the NDP has also lost some support to the fledgling Ignatieff juggernaut.
Who do you want to win the next Federal Election?
Conservative 141 (94%)
Liberal 7 (4%)
NDP 1 (0%)
Green 1 (0%)
Votes so far: 150
Days left to vote: 3
And let's call a spade a spade, when the EKOS boss goes on the Soloman show to pump his "Exclusive CBC Poll" he is basically running an infomercial to recruit business for his company. The bulk of their business comes from private sector contracts.
ReplyDeleteI think the best thing conservative supporters can do is to tell every pollster that the liberals walk on water and of course we're going to vote for them. Then when the polls creep above 40% you know iggy will force an election. Then - vote with your brain :-)
ReplyDeleteI can't remember if I was being sarcastic when I proclaimed the "fledgling Ignatieff juggernaut"... :)
ReplyDeleteyeah i smell some bs with the ekos poll as well , in one of the articles about it today the ekos president frank greaves was quoted as saying the liberals would do better with women in " the next poll " wait a second next poll ? how does he know how they will be doing in a poll he hasn't yet done ? and why does he know in advance the liberals will do better with one single voting group . so i smell there is something fishy with these polls being done for the cbc .
ReplyDeleteMore spades - ever wonder why pollsters such as Donolo and Earnscliff guys and many others are hired as Liberal staffers or are former Liberal staffers.
ReplyDeleteThe polling companies are steamed at the Harper government's edict to cut back drastically on opinion polling. All of the Deputy Ministers and senior staffers were wined and dined by polling companies and buying polls like crazy just like in the Liberal days. After the bills were tallied on this polling exhorbitance Harper laid down the law that ALL polling contracts had to be centralized and justified.
Bye bye another Liberal gravy train.
Hello pouting pollsters who really really want their gravy train Liberals back.
It can't be that difficult to get the results you want in a poll. Its just how you ask the question.
ReplyDeleteQuestion - Do you think Harper was right to destroy democracy in Canada by proroguing parliament?
Question - Do you think Harper was right to take the difficult but necessary step of prorogation so parliament could finally be restructured to serve Canadians' will?
I looked it up, and I have done 99 career posts that includes the tag CBC. If I wrote a book about the dishonest propagandizing they audaciously call journalism, do you think anyone would buy it?
ReplyDeleteOr would that be like writing a book about Hamster racing? Nobody cares.
Also about polls - do not forget that Peter Donolo who is now the backroom puppetmaster for the Liberals is a pollster. He knows precisely how to rig polls to get the answers you want.
ReplyDeleteI do too - I am a trained researcher. I would not in a million years trust data from a poll that was not peer reviewed for the questions, sample, time of day calls are made, tone and order of questions, etc. and having at least two raw data inputs. That "margin of error" they all talk about - ha- it is the margin of HUMAN error and leading slant of the questions that is the real error and that s very easily manipulated. I have been a peer reviewer on research polling and believe me- the people who buy the polls already know what they want the results to be. Only ethical pollsters will turn them down and, well, those Toronto based Liberal firms want their bread buttered don't they. Do you think CBC would want to promote a poll and give such yummy face time to the pollster if it was bad news for the Liberals?
Where would their storyline be? Just in time to have this top of the news while Harper is making us proud on the world stage.
I have generally observed that the participation rate on my own polling is anywhere between 5% - 15% depending on the interest in the individual poll. The large majority do not participate in online polling.
ReplyDeleteLeading question is very important take a look at the Angus Poll that states ALL activities are suspended of MP's and Senators.
ReplyDeleteThis is incorrect and leads to faulty conclusions.
They did at least get it right with 22 sitting days vs lazy media and partisan blogger who can't count.
I may be a partisan, but I assure you I can count.
ReplyDeletehaha
ReplyDeleteCTV likely expecting some Harper bashing on GW, but the comment section did not go according to plan,
comments now closed
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100128/g20_harper_100128/20100128?hub=Canada
We conservatives may have a snowball's chance in hell of dragging the MSM kicking and screaming out of the socialist/Liberal camp into the sunshine, but when we come up with some tag line these clowns can't resist the latest chic terminology. The other day on CTV during some discussion on politics, I noticed that the title bar at the bottom of the screen read that "Iggy" was for or against something or other. Looks like the Iggy moniker is here to stay, or until some wet-behind-the-ears Liberal staffer notices it and gets it changed.
ReplyDelete