Is the CBC’s Vote Compass skewing left-wing? (Or, Internet survey produces dodgy results? The Sun is there)
A reasonable reader might just assume that in 2011, everyone knows self-selected Internet polls are not to be taken seriously. Not so, apparently, the Sun papers. They’ve been using the CBC’s Vote Compass as further evidence that the Crown broadcaster is all Libbed up. It started last week when someone told the Sun’s Brian Lilley that the “CBC vote quiz creator worked for [Michael] Ignatieff,” the headline the Toronto Sun ran with and that’s still at the top of the Web copy.
Now, there’s some reason to think that the Vote Compass is flawed; as some have pointed out (and we tested this morning), entering the middle value on all questions—which usually meant “neither agree nor disagree”—got us marked as Liberal (technically, between Liberal and Conservative, but closer to Liberal). This means either the poll reflects the Liberals as the centrist party in Canada’s politics, or that the Grits, on average, have no convictions whatsoever.
More important is what the Sun decided it did and didn’t need to tell its readers when it picked this as an election issue. The paper said that Peter Loewen, the “creator” of this “quiz,” “worked” for Michael Ignatieff. What the paper didn’t say was that Loewen didn’t create the survey, wasn’t paid by the Liberals and also worked for several Tories.
A number of pretty diverse voices have come out in Loewen’s defence since Lilley decided to turn him into collateral damage in Quebecor’s ongoing jihad against the CBC. Simon Houpt over at the Globe suggests that this is just Quebecor getting its juices flowing for their impending launch of the Sun News TV channel.
Frankly, we think that just overcomplicates things. When the Sun goes after the CBC and the Liberals, we just assume it’s because the sun rose that morning.
• Sun Media ignored Flanagan on Vote Compass prof’s objectivity [Talking Points]
• Election Chatter (Day 7): [Ottawa Magazine]
• Sun burns CBC in bid to hype tabloid TV [Globe and Mail]
• Sun family values [Maclean’s]
&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Vote-Compass-Results.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_63990" align="alignleft" width="412" caption="A screen shot of the Vote Compass results when all questions are answered "niether agree or disagree" or "same as now""][/caption]
A reasonable reader might just assume that in 2011, everyone knows self-selected Internet polls are not to be taken seriously. Not so, apparently, the Sun papers. They've been using the CBC’s Vote Compass as further evidence that the Crown broadcaster is all Libbed up. It started last week when someone told the Sun’s Brian Lilley that the “CBC vote quiz creator worked for [Michael] Ignatieff," the headline the Toronto Sun ran with and that's still at the top of the Web copy.
Now, there’s some reason to think that the Vote Compass is flawed; as some have pointed out (and we tested this morning), entering the middle value on all questions—which usually meant “neither agree nor disagree”—got us marked as Liberal (technically, between Liberal and Conservative, but closer to Liberal). This means either the poll reflects the Liberals as the centrist party in Canada’s politics, or that the Grits, on average, have no convictions whatsoever.
More important is what the Sun decided it did and didn’t need to tell its readers when it picked this as an election issue. The paper said that Peter Loewen, the “creator” of this “quiz,” “worked” for Michael Ignatieff. What the paper didn’t say was that Loewen didn’t create the survey, wasn’t paid by the Liberals and also worked for several Tories.
A number of pretty diverse voices have come out in Loewen's defence since Lilley decided to turn him into collateral damage in Quebecor’s ongoing jihad against the CBC. Simon Houpt over at the Globe suggests that this is just Quebecor getting its juices flowing for their impending launch of the Sun News TV channel.
Frankly, we think that just overcomplicates things. When the Sun goes after the CBC and the Liberals, we just assume it’s because the sun rose that morning.
• Sun Media ignored Flanagan on Vote Compass prof’s objectivity [Talking Points]
• Election Chatter (Day 7): [Ottawa Magazine]
• Sun burns CBC in bid to hype tabloid TV [Globe and Mail]
• Sun family values [Maclean’s]){kind=link}
There is no doubt that Vote Compass tends to align most respondents with the Liberal party. This happens because the tool, in its attempt to represent political views on a simplistic two-dimensional grid, offets fiscally “left” responses with fiscally “right” ones and socially conservative responses with socially liberal ones, without any regard for the positions taken on individual issues.
The result is that one can disagree with a party on every issue but still wind up right next to that party (or even right on top of it) on the grid. In other words, one’s position on this grid is not a valid measure of one’s alignment to any party.
If you want to know which party you are most closely aligned with, you can discover that quite easily by answering the Vote Compass questions and then comparing your answers to those attributed to the various parties.
Give each of your answers and each of the party’s answers a numerical value from 1 to 5. Then calculate the amount of difference on each of the 30 questions and find the sum of all those differences. Treat all differences as positive numbers; don’t use negative differences to offset positive differences.
Vote Compass’s methodology treats two disagreements as having the same value as two agreements. This is preposterous logic and bad science.
CBC, is so partial to the Liberals and NDP’s. You give these parties more time and report all negatives on the Conservative Government. We as Canadians do not need a change, as our county is doing great with the Conservatives. The Liberals/NDP’s have cost us Canadians so much money calling for this new Federal Elections.
All of the promises from the NDP/Liberals cost dollars so where do they get the funds to cover their promises, from us Canadians. CBC reports make me sick as they are so partial to NDP’s/Liberals.