It is like playing Snakes and Ladders without the dice. It is phoning people at random and hoping they might tell you the truth. It is annoying people with recorded telephone calls and thinking they might be civil in return. It all adds up to bad guesses in a mug’s game.
But what else has the media to report? In the dog days of summer, they are just playing with numbers. The parties have the campaign buses ready for the shakedown cruises. They are testing slogans and trying to paper over the warts on their campaigns.
Mind you, it is safe to report that the conservatives and liberals are in the lead. Nobody will argue that at this stage. No serious gaffs have been noted. The NDP and greens are covering the middle ground. All it means, so far, is that a lot of people, sincere about the environment, will be disappointed. The Bloc and Bernier’s people party are fighting over the dregs of votes in Quebec. All in all, ho-hum and boring.
Come back during the first week in October and there will be some movement to report. Nobody can tell you what that movement will be. It might not even be statistically viable. The only polls you can really trust are the exit polls on election day.
But the game continues. Everyone wants to play at it. And I love the way some people are hedging their bets. It is so bad that the CBC is hiring right-wing writers from Post Media to assure the world of their neutrality. People wonder why Nanos and Mainstreet always show the liberals contending. Do they favour the libs?
Following the pollsters is like playing poker in a rigged game. It hardly pays. Yet, if it is the only game in town, you want to be where the action is.
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Copyright 2019 © Peter Lowry
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