The federal Liberal government鈥檚 attempt to ascertain Canadians鈥� feelings about our voting system is clumsy and ill-conceived at best. At worst, it is a not-so-subtle attempt to swing public sentiment in its favour.
Either way, Ottawa should not waste any more time or money on its MyDemocracy.ca website, as there is little chance this pitiful exercise can produce any useful data.
The website, which contains a survey on attitudes about voting and Parliament, was launched a few days after Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef mocked the work of the all-party committee on electoral reform. Monsef has since apologized for disparaging the committee, but hasn鈥檛 backed away from her view that 鈥渢he only consensus that the report found was that there is no consensus on electoral reform.鈥�
So Monsef has set out to find out for herself (in addition to holding hearings of her own) what Canadians think about the topic, as expressed in their responses to the survey propositions on MyDemocracy.ca.
Surveys done by professionals and drafted according to scientific methods have come under fire lately for missing the mark on gauging public opinion. The Liberals鈥� survey is anything but scientific and professional, so what chance does it have to be credible?
Guidelines for professional polling say questions should be in simple statements, and that complex and compound sentences should be avoided, as should statements that contain 鈥渋f鈥� or 鈥渂ecause鈥� phrases. The aim is to ascertain what people think, not influence how they think.
Most of the questions on the MyDemocracy.ca survey violate those guidelines. Twelve of the first 20 propositions contain the phrase 鈥渆ven if.鈥� It鈥檚 hard to duck the conclusion that such a phrase adds a negative twist.
For example, the second proposition states: 鈥淐anadians should have the right to cast their vote online in federal elections, even if this increases the cost of elections.鈥� This puts the respondent in a quandary 鈥� you might favour online voting, but that also means you favour more-expensive elections.
Proposition 10 asks a response to the idea of multiple preferences on the ballot, 鈥渆ven if this means that it takes longer to count the ballots and announce the election results.鈥�
So you like the idea of a preferential ballot, but that means waiting longer to learn the outcome of the election.
Would online voting really increase election costs? If so, are the results worth the extra expense? Would the outcome of an election involving preferential ballots compensate for the extra effort? Could technology be used to overcome the drawbacks? The survey makes no attempt to weigh the pros and the cons.
There鈥檚 nothing to stop you from taking the survey multiple times, so a person or group wanting to skew the results can do so easily. The company that created the website for the government claims it can detect multiple submissions, but even moderately skilled computer users can find a way around that.
Besides, four people living in the same household could participate in the survey using the same computer. Would three of them be rejected?
The survey has attracted a lot of attention. Most of it is a storm of well-deserved social-media scorn, and much of that has do with the website鈥檚 supposed interactivity. You tell it what you think, then when you have finished, it analyzes your answers and tells you what it thinks of you. You are put into a category: challenger, pragmatist, co-operator or innovator.
Here鈥檚 an either/or proposition for the Liberals:
The current government hasn鈥檛 the foggiest idea what a credible survey is OR this government really believes Canadians are na茂ve enough to be duped by this amateurish effort.
