Rival polling firms trade barbs

[CHIMO]

OTTAWA — A spat has erupted between two of the country's prominent polling companies over whether Canadians support Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Mideast policy.

In one corner, the Strategic Counsel firm is standing by a recent survey that suggested only one-third of Canadians shared Harper's staunch pro-Israel stand.

In the other corner, the head of the Compas firm says the prime minister enjoys twice that much support and accused his rivals today of conducting a "misleading anti-Harper poll."

Compas dismissed reports that support for the Conservative party has taken a pounding during the Lebanon-Israel conflict.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1155592215631&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home

[Spazito]

1. ROFL, take a gander on how Compas came to their conclusion...

Compas arrived at its conclusion that Canadians supported Harper after asking the following four questions:

— Does Israel have a right to defend itself? (82 per cent responded in the affirmative)

— Was Iran wrong to arm Hezbollah and call for the destruction of Israel? (69 per cent agreed)

— Was Syria wrong to arm Hezbollah and disobey the United Nations resolution requiring Syria to keep guns out of Lebanon? (68 per cent agreed)

— Did Hezbollah in Lebanon start the war? (Just 38 per cent agreed)

Compas then took those four responses, averaged them out, and concluded that 64 per cent of Canadians supported Harper's policy.

and then this set of questions regarding Harper's policy decisions:


— It wanted to earn U.S. goodwill and protect Canada's economic interests. (21 per cent agreed)

— President Bush is a role model (12 per cent)

— Israel has a right to defend itself (19 per cent)

— Arab extremism is a problem (12 per cent)

— Hezbollah is terrorist (12 per cent)

— Syria and Iran are problems (4 per cent)

Compas then proceeded to add up the final three of those responses and come up with the figure 28 per cent — while leaving separate the President Bush/U.S. responses, which would have reached 33 per cent had they been lumped together.

The Compas poll must be the one that canada.com was touting last week, now we know what caused the delusional results, lol.

[CHIMO]

2. Yep

Looks like they are setting things up to create the impression of a Conservative approval.

So just think of the shenanigans coming up at the next election. Shades of electronic voting and other states that cut things out.

Then they have the polls to fall back on and everyone is a sore loser.

[ClusterFreak]

3. Very insightful post!

When you see in black and white just how manipulative polling can be, it really makes you shake your head. This is the same kind of logic that concludes 1 + 1 equals 11.

So, let's see...most Canadians think Iran shouldn't be arming Hezbollah....add a dash of most people think Israel has a right to defend itself, and just a pinch of Hezbollah started the war, and presto!!

Harper's mideast policy is therefore judged sound.

Puh.

Leeze.

[daleo]

4. "Does Israel have right to defend itself?"

And "do you agree with Harper's statement that claimed Israel's response was measured" are two very different things.

Basically, it was a straw man poll. And the averaging of these four questions into one scale item is preposterous social science. It just confirms what many of us (including you and I) have been saying about polling firms.

[MrPrax]

5. COMPAS must be on crack

or a Tory polling company...both would tend to produce the same interpretive results.

But they still contend their poll is accurate when they actually got a response like this:

— Did Hezbollah in Lebanon start the war? (Just 38 per cent agreed)

The other three questions are ridiculous, but this is surprising. I would have assumed the opposite...given that it is 'settled logic' among the elites and their media.

Means 68% don't buy the narrative.

surprise surprise

:shrug:

[Captain Hilts]

6. Well, first off, they can't spell 'compass' correctly...nt