- Harper Manipulate the Political Polls - That Sounds Plausible

Submitted: 7:21 am, PST, 14 Feb.'11
Pollsters advise voters to be wary of polls ahead of possible spring vote, By: Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press, The Winnipeg Free Press, 02/13/2011
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/breakingnews/pollsters-advise-voters-to-be-wary-of-polls-
ahead-of-possible-spring-vote-116112554.html

"There's broad consensus among pollsters that proliferating political polls suffer from a combination
of methodological problems, commercial pressures and an unhealthy relationship with the media.

Start with the methodological morass.

'The dirty little secret of the polling business . . . is that our ability to yield results
accurately from samples that reflect the total population has probably never been worse in the 30 to
35 years that the discipline has been active in Canada,' says veteran pollster Allan Gregg, chairman
of Harris-Decima which provides political polling for The Canadian Press."

"Liberal party pollster Michael Marzolini's . . . worries the plethora of shoddy media polls, an annoyance between elections, can be self-fulfilling during a campaign. . . .
'the only movement in the polls is in fact motivated by the previous polls.'"


This revelation by the Polling Industry, coming just before an election (possibly) is quite interesting.

So, there is a lack of accuracy and responsibility associated with the generation of political polls and the dissemination.

This is, of course, very important given the attention that is paid to political polls by the voting population.

The potential for abuse and manipulation of the voters is significant.

If a political party had lots of money, especially lots more than the others. They could intimate that they have lots of money to spend on polls and if they were not too discerning as to accuracy, but more on whether they are favourable . . . according to this article, who knows, perhaps their wish would come true.

Then if they had lots of money to spend on media they could inundate the voters with these 'independent' polls and thus a misleading impression is created. Given the money being spent, the media might not be too eager to insist on warranties of accuracy either, and why should they.

Given that, as we have all seen:

- Harper and the Con's have developed the biggest propaganda machine seen in Western democracies in recent history.

- Harper and the Con's do and say everything for political gain only. Truth, integrity, decency, fairness have no place with them . They are only concerned with grabbing onto power and maintaining it, at any cost, without a care for Canada.

- The Harper, and the Con’s generally, style politics is of distortion, cover-up, duplicity, deception, obscuration and obfuscation, suppression of truth and, slandering, mud slinging and character assassination in lieu of serious and sober response to important issues.

- Harper and the Cons' are far ahead of the other parties in fund raising and seem to have a unlimited source of support from a core (33%) of die-hard supporters, epi-centred in Alberta.

Is it any wonder that the the Liberal Party pollster is raising this issue.

Also, apparently there is concern Harper is stacking the CRTC because there is a decision coming down that would remove the obligation of any broadcaster or newspaper to fact-check stories or be accurate in their coverage as long as the reporting does not endanger lives. (G&M, 4 Feb.'11)

Boy, that seems to 'dovetail' quite nicely with the above scenario.

I am not sure these political polls will endanger lives.

But, they certain could endanger Canadians way of life, that our forefathers built of many generation with their blood sweat and tears and Harper is so ruthlessly and relentlessly is tearing asunder.

excerpt: Lloyd MacILquham cicblog.com/comments.html