Saturday, May 31, 2008

Boggles The Mind

I find this too be an amazing statement from a pollster, particularly when you've just concluded that by a 55%-39% margin, Canadians want the RCMP to investigate the Bernier matter:
I don't think it hurts the government in any way. It gives the opportunity to the Prime Minister to set a plank in a new platform that says we're going to change the Cabinet, we've got a new chief of staff in place and we can move forward," Mr. Wright said.

"If anything, this may have been the linchpin for changing the face of the government and actually getting on with the business of government."

The above reads like Conservative spin, which shows no relationship to the polls own findings. This mess doesn't hurt the government in any way? How can any credible person make that comment, given what has transpired? Did Wright see the Prime Minister, when he announced the resignation?

I'm of mixed opinion, just how much this hurts the government, primarily because it seems to me the media is largely missing the point, this issue getting lost in the tabloid angle. That said, isn't it just common sense that the Bernier affair is a negative, to some degree, for the government, on some level? Wright turns it all around, that this is actually a fresh start for the government, a positive development. Give me a freaking break, and thanks once again for revealing your horrible bias, quite alarming for a public pollster, lead by supposed neutral methodology.

UPDATE

No, nothing to see here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not to mention this screams of a poll asking only the most obscure of questions to try to come up with a "mixed bag" type of response.

Why not ask a question like, "Does the handling of the Bernier matter by Stephen Harper harm your opinion on his leadership ability?" instead of some obtuse peripheral question about the handling of the matter, from which the pollster then "concludes" it doesn't harm his reputation.

Heck, no need to conclude anything, just ask the question. You're a polling outfit aren't you?

After a while, it begins to sound very much like some kind of push-polling technique.

I have long been suspicious of the timing of polls and the questions asked. I just don't see why anyone should blindly trust pollsters of any stripe really. It appears more and more they are part of the spin, not an anecdote for it.

Anonymous said...

getting late, that should have been "antidote," not anecdote ; ).

Anonymous said...

the rcmp are now conservative and the pollsters are conservative so what difference does it all make....it will all turn out in SH favour....this is how bush won the first election....dion better GO now before its too late.