Lopsidedness

The footnote to the Olympic torch story, as reported last night by Lloyd Robertson of CTV News:

And we have some numbers to show you on how Canadians may feel about a boycott. And please note, this is not a scientific survey of the kind we would conduct for an election, but the figures in this straw poll are so lopsided we thought they were worth putting up. For an on-line survey on CTV.ca, 80 percent of respondents said Canada should not consider a boycott of the opening ceremonies. About 20 percent said we should. More than 37,000 people sent in their responses, and that's more than twice the number for these kinds of surveys.

CTV broadcasts all across Canada. Its website has at least twenty times the daily traffic of VOCM.com, according to alexa.com metrics.

Yet, CTV's daily online straw-poll averages fewer than 18,500 (half of "more than 37,000") votes.

VOCM's Question of the Day, since 2005, has averaged about 2500.

There have been two VOCM Questions of the Day during that period with more than 37,000 votes: “If a provincial election was held today what party would you vote for?”, on June 8, 2006, with 46,363, and, when the dollar figure became briefly and mildly scandalous, “Do you think the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by the province to host Canada's premiers last summer, was money well spent?” on November 27 of the same year, which garnered 41,994.

58% answered PC to the first question.

64% agreed with the second.

There have been another twelve questions of the day with a response as large or larger than the usual number seen by the CTV website and its pan-Canadian audience and "voter" base:

“Do you think the fisheries summit should be open to the public and broadcast around the province?” (May 24, 2006, 34,270 responses, 77% yes)

“Do you think there should be an independant inquiry into the Fibre Optic Deal approved by government?” (November 23, 2006, 32,046 responses, 48% yes)

“Should the official opposition drop the fibre optic issue?” (November 29, 2006, 31,742 responses, 63% yes)

“Are you satisfied with Tom Rideout's action on his controversial expense claims? “ (January 15, 2008, 28,258 responses, 64% yes)

“Do you think the premier should call an early election because of the ongoing spending scandal in the House of Assembly?” (January 9, 2007, 28,081 responses, 83% yes)

“Do you support plans for a massive rally on Confederation Hill to support the premier in the equalization fight?” (April 23, 2007, 26,100 responses. 80% yes)

“Do you think the premier should shelve the feud with Ottawa and focus on social issues during this week's First Ministers meeting?” (January 11, 2008, 25,655 responses, 64% no)

“Do you support Danny Williams' cabinet changes?” (July 7, 2006, 23,874 responses, 69% yes)

“Do you think the provincial government should improve its offer to the Nurses' Union? “ (July 11, 2006, 23,185 responses, 51% no)

“Do you support the Labrador Metis Nation's ad campaign aimed at Premier Danny Williams? “ (April 13, 2007, 21,530 responses, 53% no)

“Do you like the Harper government's Speech From the Throne?” (October 18, 2007, 19,508 responses, 51% no)

“Do you support Loyola Hearn's statement that the annual rate hike for Marine Atlantic will result in improved quality service?” (February 9, 2007, 19,479 responses, 86% no)

The common deniminator? They were all on provincial government issues, or on federal issues with particular interest in the outcome on the part of The Eighth, especially in the context of The Great War of Liberation currently being waged.

Today’s Question of the Day is, “Do you think it’s okay for the House of Assembly to discuss issues surrounding the faulty hormone receptor tests while the Cameron Inquiry is ongoing?”

As of a few minutes ago, there were 3356 votes, running 3 to 1 in favour of the Eighth Floor’s position: No.

This is the largest response since the March 12th blockbuster, “Can Newfoundland and Labrador go it alone, without Canada?”, which pulled in 6577.

The margin of victory then, too, was a lopsided 3 to 1.

And again, the lopsidedly-winning response just happened to be the Eighth Floor’s not-so-subtly telegraphed preference.