Have you heard? Rob Ford’s still miles ahead in the latest poll, according to the Sun.
The kicker: the survey was one of those inside jobs, which is to say an internal questionnaire conducted by the Ford team itself. No questioning the results then. Let’s pack it up now and declare this mayoral race over.
The Ford team has, suggesting that the survey of 600 Torontonians all but puts to rest the Anybody But Ford campaign is gaining any steam. This, even though the survey was conducted some two weeks ago.
All is fair in love war and politics it seems. Especially BSing the masses, which the Ford camp has been very adept at doing with the release of a number of questionable polls, all dutifully published by the mainstream media, even surveys as small as 400 respondents where the error of margin is approaching 10 per cent. Welcome to modern day politics.
What duty does the press have to the public when leaked these skewed surveys by one candidate for public office or another? Whatever those obligations to objectivity may be, they’re usually trumped by the pursuit of grabby headlines.
Of all the polls the mainstream has been chasing in these municipal elections, this latest Ford number has to rate as the most offensive to voters’ intelligence. Well, maybe not. The very early one from some mystery firm down Hamilton way also showing Ford ahead was just as curious.
Come to think of it, there have been more than a few borderline polls passing for measured public opinion in this race, a number of the online variety and many employing suspect methodology that’s excluded huge swaths of the voting public.
Too late now. Their results have already seeped into the public’s consciousness. And isn’t that what polls are really all about, manufacturing consent?
More and more it seems, politics is about chasing poll numbers, not a full and rich discussions of the issues. Used to be a time when pollsters asked voters what the most important issues of the day are for them. Now polls rating the issues are rarely seens.
Elections have become a horse race. So I have to ask: do public opinion polls diminish our democracy and should they be banned, say a week or two before any vote? Yes and yes on both counts from where I sit.
Polls shape rather than reflect public opinion. Polls pose leading questions, or “push” a result. Respondents often resort to trying to answer correctly. A bandwagon effect follows perceived frontrunners.
Polls also don’t tell us what people are really thinking. The assumption has been that anger is fuelling Ford’s support, for example. But how do we know for sure? Because Ford’s angry? How then do we explain polls numbers showing David Miller would win if he were in the race then?
