Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Call me Bob, at 1.866.910.7531

I am not a Liberal party member, so I am yet to receive one of the automated "poll" questions that is going around. But, I can tell you a few things about:

1.) It's not a poll, it's a canvass.
2.) It's probablybeing run by Bob Rae's campaign, which indicates that while he's polling well he has so little organization on the ground that he is resorting to automated calls to identify his supporters.
3.) If you'd like to talk to the person running this poll, give Jim Zagak a call at 1.866.910.7531. Perhaps ask him who he's working for. Or, better, ask him why he is pretending to do a poll.

Apparently this race is not only not about ideas, it's also not about having an organization on the ground.

UPDATE: Solus One doesn't claim to be a polling firm, apparently. And, if they were, I hope they'd have some shame over breaking every one of the ten simple industry standards expected of pollsters. This is just more evidence that this is most certainly a canvas. If this is the Rae campaign, I wonder how Bob Rae feels about his campaign using deception to identify supporters?

UPDATE2: I've qualified two statements above using italics. Alex Swann from the Bob Rae campaign emailed me this afternoon. He wrote: "I have talked to people in my organization this afternoon and can say we are not behind this poll/canvass. Can you tell me how you determined our campaign was running this?" The following is the logic I used to come to this conclusion:

1. I know this is not a poll bought by a private firm because:
a. it makes no sense for any firm to know the voting intentions of every party member;
b. presumably no campaign would sell their entire list to a firm as fly by night as Solus 1.
2. It is thus a canvas being run by a campaign.
3. As only four names are mentioned – Ignatieff, Dion, Rae, and Brison, it most certainly has to be run by these campaigns.
4. I know with certainty the Ignatieff and Dion campaigns are not running the poll.
5. I presume it is not being run by the Brison people because it is being fielded in areas where he has no delegate candidates, so a canvas of his support in those areas is useless.

I am thus left with the conclusion that it is the BR campaign. Moreover, I think this fits with the general understanding of the depth of Rae's ground organization. Anyways, we should know with certainty whether this is the case in the next two days, as any number of people have selected Bob Rae just for good fun. Should they receive a call from one of Bob's phonebanks encouraging them to attend the DEMs, then this is fairly good proof that it was his campaign. Until then, I am willing to wait and see.

7 comments:

Jason Cherniak said...

I just got through at 1-866-947-8600. You number was busy.

Anonymous said...

I got the call tonight, a pleasant recording of a woman's voice, listing five options. I pressed one, and silence. I pressed one again and nothing. I pressed it twice out of frustration and heard "Sorry, that is not an option." She then preceded to offer it again and I pressed one. Nothing.
If its as you say a canvass, it's not a very well-run one. Altho i am skeptical of your theory -- since you are down as one of the 'chicken-little' anti-Rae bloggers, it certainly sounds plausible, tho why not Dion? or Iggy? I've been to phone banks for Rae more than a couple times this month and its always full with people, real people dialling members here in BC.
I'm not sure what good will come of this but I will let you know if i receive a mysterious call from a Rae operative.
Over and out!

Peter Loewen said...

Burlivespipe:

I didn't know there was an anti-Rae blogroll, but perhaps I'd be on it. I've nothing personally against the man, or the ideas which he doesn't have. Just a wrong time, wrong place thing.

Anyways, it's a relatively scattershot but somewhat effective approach to identifying unknown support, and, as it stands, Rae needs to do that the most. His ground organization just doesn't match Ignatieff's. And, given that the call makes Dion's name almost incomprehensible, it almost certainly is not for him.

Anonymous said...

This disgusts me.

So, there's an "anybody but-Iggy movement" (I will be at a pub in Montreal before I vote for him).

I sense that an "anybody but-Rae movement" starting (I'd still consider voting for him but he's losing me day by day).

So I'm down to Kennedy and maybe Dion after Brison (my first choice)drops out. I have a feeling Dion could lose me tomorrow after the AG report is released.

Great week!

Anonymous said...

Maybe the company isn't called Solus 1...maybe, instead, it is soulless one. As in, a person lacking nobility?

Just a thought

Peter Loewen said...

Do you suppose the BR campaign would admit to this canvass, given that it has been received so negatively?

I am happy to admit I am not certain they have done the poll. But it does seem most probable to me. I think it is a reasonable inference to draw.

Thanks for stopping by.

Anonymous said...

Solus One is not a company created by anyone 's campaign. It's just a company that never made it like it wanted to. You seem to love them so much , you can actually buy their stock. They are on the stock market and have been penny stock ever since their intial offering. And check out their financial reports. cuz I can't seem to find any updated ones.