How not to not care about VOCM

So, Our Dear Premier, Glorious Leader (May His Preternaturally Thick Hair Always Be Perfectly Parted) doth protest that he doesn’t care what does or doesn’t get said on VOCM.

But someone does.

In the past three years, the average number of daily responses to VOCM’s Question of the Day – whose “poll” figures are aired every weekday – has been just over 2500.

Every so often, though, there are spikes, almost invariably coinciding with questions in which someone – obviously not the Premier, because He says he doesn’t care about VOCM, and He (MHPTHABPP) always tells the truth and never lies – but someone takes a particularly keen interest.

Here are the VOCM Questions of the day, for the past six months, which have topped 5,000 “votes”, giving the date, number of “votes”, and the winning result.


11/22/2007: Should the NDP be given official party status in the House of Assembly? 5354 votes; 79% No

11/29/2007: Do you agree with Premier Danny Williams that it is not the place of former premiers to comment on how the current government operates? 8527 votes; 78% Yes

12/3/2007: Do you think government should offer more incentives to secure the future of the mill in Grand Falls-Windsor? 7511 votes; 50% Yes

12/4/2007: Are you satisfied with the outcome of that meeting between the prime minister and Premier Danny Williams? votes; 5769 votes; 62% Yes

1/11/2008: Do you think the premier should shelve the feud with Ottawa and focus on social issues during this week's First Ministers meeting? 25655 votes; 64% No

1/15/2008: Are you satisfied with Tom Rideout's action on his controversial expense claims? votes; 28258 votes; 64% Yes

1/29/2008: Do you think the provincial government is doing enough to protect your personal information? votes; 7445 votes; 56% No

1/30/2008: Do you think it's a good idea for government to have a debt clock present at the pre-budget consultations? 5137 votes; 49% No

2/5/2008: Should the premier ask Andy Wells to step down as mayor to focus on his new job as chair and CEO of the PUB? 15645 votes; 45% Yes

3/12/2008: Can Newfoundland and Labrador go it alone, without Canada? 6577 votes; 74% Yes

4/17/2008: Do you think the Nurses' Union is looking for too much in contract negotiations with government? 6043 votes; 51% No

5/2/2008: Do you think the provincial government should index the pensions of public service pensioners? 5258 votes; 79% No

5/12/2008: Do you agree with the premier that the Cameron inquiry appears to be more of a `prosecution' than an inquiry? 10730 votes; 74% Yes