Perhaps to make weather predictors feel better, the recent B.C. election showed again that pollsters can be equally unreliable. At the closing of the polls, just after 8 p.m., Tuesday night, CTV reported its polling said that the chances of a NDP win was 87 per cent and that of a Liberal government, 11 per cent. (One wonders what the other 2 per cent was, the likelihood that the next government would be formed by sasquatches?) How did they get it so wrong?
The pollsters shouldn't feel bad as they are not alone in apparently not having much of a clue. Citizen editor Neil Godbout stated in a Feb. 28 editorial, regarding the Wood Innovation and Design Centre, "the B.C. Liberals insist the project is still going ahead this spring, cheerfully ignoring the fact that the May provincial election will bring the NDP to power." On April 3, he stated that, "It took Christy Clark two years to get rid of the HST, just in time for her to lead her party to defeat in next month's provincial election."
People like pollsters, meteorologist and The Citizen editor can take comfort that they are not alone in showing that they often do not know what they are talking about. In light of how wrong they get things though, they should be concerned whether people wonder about their ultimate usefulness, like NDP party members may be currently speculating about Adrian Dix.
Paul Serup
Prince George
