In April of 2016, Jenkins Research found 68 public opinion polls in the media or through a search of the Internet. The 68 polls were conducted on 47 fielded surveys. For more information, see the methodology information here. Other key findings: Only 19% of survey releases were associated with a non-media sponsor such as a company, […]
One of the compelling and topical issues from a public opinion perspective at present is the question of assisted dying. There have been a significant number of polls in Canada over the past couple years reflecting the need for new legislation since the Supreme Court set aside the criminal treatment of assisted dying. While the […]
Bias has considerable negative consequences and the easiest critique of a public opinion survey is to suggest that the questions are biased. But bias is inherent in asking questions and relying on truly unbiased questions risks stripping the questions of meaning, leaving them stale and irrelevant. While probably everyone could recognize extreme bias, bias can be […]
Companies are no doubt very interested in knowing the degree to which their corporate social responsibility activities drives their business success. The case for supporting causes is particularly interesting because the activity takes place outside of its core business (e.g. Tim Horton’s is not in the business of providing kids camps). Contributing a portion of […]
Not too long ago, I wrote about the dramatic change in public opinion about same-sex marriage and our natural tendency is to think of these types of changes as being a reflection, to some degree, of generational replacement. Younger people have different attitudes than the previous generations and over time they become a larger proportion of […]
The impression one gets from a casual following of economic news is that Canada is doing well but not outstanding. There are concerns about Europe and the U.S. but these seem divorced from the day-to-day lives of most Canadians. Nevertheless, consumer confidence has dropped quite precipitously over the past three months. According to TNS Canada, […]
Public opinion change is not unheard of but when it comes to fundamental beliefs and values, we expect change to take place slowly, if at all. The evolution of Canadian beliefs about same-sex marriage provide an interesting example of dramatic changes that both presupposed and reacted to court decisions. Courts played a key role in […]
Senators have been having a tough time the last few weeks and the institution is looking a lot less like an institution of sober second thought and more like a frat house. But, even if Harper is now regretting his choices and even though he may want senate reform, the recent events do nothing to […]
Just this week, we got another pseudo apologetic letter about why election polling is sometimes (perhaps even often) inaccurate. This time it was from Peter Loewen (an Assistant Professor of UofT). His article in the Ottawa Citizen is here but, it like many similiar pieces completely misses the point. Pollsters are in a unique an […]
The most recent shootings in a Colorado movie theatre by a man armed with an automatic weapon has hardly caused a ripple in terms of public demands for gun control. In one way, this is strikingly surprising because we expect dramatic events such of this to focus public opinion on the negative consequences of gun […]