Canada’s Polling Industry Embroiled By Internal Feud

Divergent polls gauging political parties’ support have prominent pollsters pointing fingers at one another.

Perhaps this was the 20th time out of 20. A Harris-Decima poll released Wednesday showed Conservative support at 36 per cent and the Liberals’ at 28, a sharp contrast to several other recent polls that Tory support anywhere between 32 and 43 per cent. The latest poll will only enflame a rancourous debate that was kicked off last month when Harris-Decima Chairman Allen Gregg said his industry’s ability to accurately measure Canadians’ opinions has never been worse and that it is detrimental to democracy to analyze every minor fluctuation in political support on a week-by-week basis. Other polling companies have fired back, arguing that most pollsters correctly predicted the outcomes of the previous two elections.