Wednesday, June 16, 2004

And here's some more

Manitoba Tories throw support behind Martin
So now we have not only former PC leader Joe Clark, but also conservatives in Alberta and Manitoba supporting Martin over Harper. So far, at least, there seem to be more high-profile conservatives leaving Harper, the supposed front-runner, than there are liberals leaving Martin, who supposedly is losing.
I'm also beginning to wonder about the extent to which the whole "winner/loser" thing based entirely on polls. For example, the Star Phoenix today trumpets the Ipsos-Reid poll saying that "56 per cent of decided voters surveyed in Saskatchewan and Manitoba said they'd vote for the Tories if the election was held now."
But it turns out, reading further into the story - the 14th paragraph - that this poll size was 68 people.
In other words, 38 people spread across Manitoba and Saskatchewan said they would vote Tory. Well, a sample size this small is just not meaningful. I'm still waiting for some real polls.

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