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Blog of Adam Daifallah -- author, journalist, law student. Lover of politics, writing, golf, curling, fitness, fashion, bacon and maple products -- not necessarily (but probably) in that order. Partisan of the Anglosphere. Contact me via email at adam@daifallah.com. This summer I am joined by Keir Wilmut and Omar Soliman.
Monday, December 12, 2005
Why I won't be posting any more polling results
In fact, I don't know why I've wasted as much time on them as I have in this campaign. They're useless. Arianna Huffington, for whom I once worked (when she was conservative) was one of the first people I know of to really question polling and polling methods. Her arguments made a lot of sense to me then and they still do now.
But what put me over the edge today was a story quoting Darrell Bricker of Ipsos-Reid, commenting on how the Tories are 19% behind the Liberals in Ontario:
More worrisome, however, is Ontarians’ fear about what they are not hearing from the Conservatives, Bricker warned.
"It’s the other stuff ... the things that relate to intolerance and privatization of health care that people haven’t heard enough clarity on. That’s always the problem with Stephen Harper in Ontario ... people think that he’s representing some sort of a Mike Harris-style hidden agenda and he’s not talking about it. Even though the policies may actually sound good, it’s more like: well, what aren’t you telling me - what about a woman’s right to choose, or the separation between church and state?"
That is so wacked, tough to know even where to start. "Mike Harris-style hidden agenda"? Excuse me? You can accuse Mike Harris of a lot of things, but I don't believe having a hidden agenda would be one of them. In fact, it's tough to think of another modern politician who was so up-front so early on about what he intended to do. (Remember, the Common Sense Revolution was released in June 1994, a full year before the Ontario election.) Bricker also knows that several recent polls show a new willingness to explore private healthcare options -- even though Harper is not running on that.
The various polling companies are doing so many polls, its tough to keep track anyway. And they all seem to use different sample sizes, which means varying margins of error. So this blog is officially a poll-free zone until January 23.
(Countdown to first comment below from Peter Loewen...)
# posted by Adam Daifallah : 9:14 PM
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