ROBBINS Sce Reseach "Poll"

I find the work of ROBBINS Sce Research highly entertaining for its imaginative wishful thinking.   On December 22nd they released a new "poll" which has, surprise, surprise, BC First in the lead.   Here are their headline results:

From their website:

From the following choices offered ONLY, which political leader and party do you currently support most?

Fight HST leader and former BC premier Bill Vander Zalm and new BC First Party 32.7 %

Veteran MLA Mike Farnworth and BC NDP Party 27.1 %

Current BC Premier Gordon Campbell and BC Liberals 18.6 %

A targeted survey of 732 BC voters from the May 2009 general federal election in the Province of British Columbia, between December 17th and 22nd, 2010. This poll features a margin of error of 3.62%, 19 times out of 20 @95% confidence

So they did not allow the Greens ( the choice of about 10% of the people in BC) or the Conservatives (lately about 7% of the choice of people in BC).

Next they prompt only with Bill Vander Zalm, not the leader of BC First, Mike Farnworth, not the leader of the NDP, and Gordon Campbell who is stepping down.  So you have to answer one of these three and can not say none of the above.   This skews it completely out of whack with reality.   They also provide no data to show if the selection of people is a reasonable representation of the public or if the selection is just a set of the friends of Chris Delaney.

They amuse me with their polls.   Here are two different questions from an April 8 2005 'poll'

Question #7

To which provincial leader and party are you most attracted and likely to give your vote in the May 2005 general provincial election?

Gordon Campbell and BC Liberals 42 %

Carole James and NDP 40 %

Adrienne Carr and Green 11 %

Tom Morino and Democratic Reform 07 %

Question #19

For which political party and leader to you intend to cast your vote on May 17, 2005?

Adrienne Carr and Green Party 13 %

Carole James and New Democrats 38 %

Tom Morino and Democratic Reform Party 07 %

Gordon Campbell and BC Liberals 43 %

They effectively asked the same question twice and got some significant differences.   Most interesting is the very high numbers they got for DRBC, but then in polling in 2004 they managed to find measurable support for Unity BC.


Here is a question from a March 19th 2009 poll

Question #1

Are you eligible to vote in the BC provincial general election this May, 2009? (1,117 respondents)

Yes, I am certain I am eligible to vote 75.5 %

Yes, I believe I am eligible to vote 24.5 %

I am not eligible to vote 16.5 %

Unsure/Other 08 %

Note that the total adds up to 124.5% - there must be some huge margin of error or someone is very mathematically challenged.  It is questions like this that are the gems scattered through out the ROBBINS Sce Research polls and makes them so wonderfully entertaining.    But it is not the fanciful numbers that are nearly as entertaining has his writing.  You can go onto almost any page read his bizarre ramblings and entertain yourself - I would post some exerts, but they are simply too long.

I do think he thinks he is serious, but it is all coming close enough to farce to possibly be a long running political stunt/hoax ala Frank Abagnale.  If he does turn out to be a hoax website, it would be a shame because his polls and ramblings would no longer be nearly as entertaining knowing they were intended as fiction