Jeeves,

The Globe and Flail is not Canwest, it's Bell media. But I am as disappointed as you in this poll. What's going on with the (formerly) beloved Globe? Perhaps they need to have their subscriptions disappear for a while.

If this goes down as everyone is speculating, and the Fibbers get re-elected, we will have a lot of media work to do. Do we have any lawyers on the left?

The Poll and the results seem just right to me. No different than any other poll.

Just because the results do not favour the Left does not mean such is invalid!

What if the results favoured the NDP?

the tightest election facing b c this decade????
it's the second, and the first was not very tight!!!! the tightest election facing b c this decade!!! you lost me after that little bit of sensationalism!!!

Jeeves & Jazz -- I'm with you. That deplorable Globe editorial (that fail-grade Liberal advert) depressed me 6 ways t'hell. It was as if an old friend had died.

I'd like to see a legal challenge. As in: how much premeditated damage can a newspaper do, before it crosses the line into wilfull mischief for the purpose of a benefit? As in that BCTF falsehood by CanWest.

The Globe & Mail, by the way, published 2 excellent Letters-to-the-Editor today (May 15) headed "Campbell, no thanks!"

What these rags and Media stations are doing is nothing short of advertising for the Fiberal government. I sincerely hope that someone in the know will have these rags prosecuted for whatever reasons they can find.Try false advertising, deception. Whatever.I have never been so disgusted with the major media in my life. I have stopped watching Tony and Bill et al and have not bought a newspaper in 3 years. Just for the simple fact that there reporting is nothing but a pack of lies.There used to be some real reporters in this province.(Jack Webster) who reported all views. The mealy mouth little pricks we have today are nothing but puppets for their editors. And the editors are a joke.
As for the no-mind that asks "what if the results favored the NDP?" I can't see why anyone with half a brain could ask such a moronic question. How can any result that has been abused in this way benefit anyone but the Fiberals.

I don't understand how anyone can be surprised by Rod Mickleburgh's reaction. He is one of the Globe's reporters who likes to appear professional and kind of impartial.

The reality is that he is quite sympathetic to the Christian Right and the pro-life forces, to the point of refusing to ever identify them in any report he does on the BC Liberals. His game is to paint the Campbell Liberals as economic conservatives and social liberals, and to ignore the entire Fraser Valley wing of the party.

What's wrong with the Fraser Valley wing of the BC Liberal Party. Am I missing something ? Is it now evil to be a Christian ? Is it now evil to be conservative ? No wonder the NDP are going down bigtime.

I've been a Globe & Mail reader for a long time. Though its business/corporatist bias is evident, it has generally presented a relatively well balanced set of viewpoints around an interesting range of issues. As well, to here at least, it had seemed to resist that sharpened, more clearly "class" polarization trend within corporate media, which has gathered momentum since the early '80s.

All of which began to change at the Globe and Mail some time ago now, along with, as I've previously noted, even the public broadcaster, CBC, regardless of the latter's protestations to the contrary. And which arrives at the zenith point development of this phenomena, with this so-called "poll" that shows "overwhelming" support for the Liberals in BC, that can in fact only seriously be called a "push" poll, at best. What has finally emerged along this entire range of status quo "media" policy and opinion is that, we seem to have finally reached a point where corporate media intent is patently at a place where, it sees its own role as more purely "propagandistic" than in anyway balanced or objectively informative. Even the "pretence" is being allowed to fall by the wayside.

That has really always been there, of course, and neither, given the nature and dynamic of the socio-=historical period we are in, am I surprised. It is merely now more blatant and obvious, with little intent to even "appear" otherwise. (But really, it has been evolving and gathering momentum since the days of the Solidarity Movement in the early '80s, like I say.)

So mostly, we just all need to face up and 'fess up to it, and appreciate the impact it needs to have on our left wing politics (for those of us unabashedly so). Because what this development of a more openly propagandistic media is indicating to us, I think, is that there is a need to take more hardened (as in "firm") political positions ourselves, and to develop more aggressive tactics and strategies, that will break though the iron curtain veil being placed between us, and the mass of ordinary citizenry. (As we need to continue to sharpen our analysis and critique of current capitalism.)

And that isn't an argument for foolhardyness or adventurism, though a youth centred "leftist" energy and willingness to engage in some levels of "risk behaviour" would certainly be approptiate, I think. It is more a "suggestion" that serious efforts to organize ourselves and broader elements of working people, intellectuals, students, agriculture and the community, outside the controlling influence of all political parties per se is needed. For it's only people in motion from here on, I really do think, and I mean very large numbers of them, who are going to be able break through this new propaganda iron curtain of "the system", and force a new and counterposing political and economic dynamic.

Playing "the system's game", as the NDP and Greens content themselves with, is clearly, from here on in, going to more and more be a waste of time-, in and of itself. And catch the fine point of that ending, please, "...in and of itself."

I've got a really busy week coming up here, and I'm reading here every chance I get, and when and where I do get breaks, I will endeavour to drop in and make comments.

The run of history is not over yet, eh? (And one election, or even two, does not the full story of the history yet to be written make. :-) Stay strong, my friends.

I have enjoyed my home delivery of the Globe for the past three years, but now must decide am I paying a premium price for the same distorted bullshit I could get for a quarter the price from an Asperrag?

A cooked opinion poll in the Globe&Mail?

If it's true it ranks right up their with the sludge coming out of the Gomery inquiry, a national disgrace.

I think I am beginning to understand why there is a profound shift in politics taking place across South America. The institutions have been lined up against the people for too long.

And this from the newspaper that claims to be the centre of journalistic balance in Canada, one that has reached out to disaffected former Vancouver Sun (and others) readers who were looking for accuracy and honesty.

This allegation of unethical polling begs the question, can we trust anything in the Globe anymore.

One of the good reads in the Globe, until recently has been the Saturday page 2 piece by editor Edward Greenspon, who added context to his writing staff's efforts to deliver the goods six day a week.

I think Greenspon might soon be called 'Fast' Eddie if this claim of playing fast and loose with the truth isn't clarified immediately.

Who's decision was it to hire a former conservative bagman to conduct the polling?

Who approved the questions?

Is this what "freedom of the press" is all about Eddy?

The freedom to simply shit all over the trust of citizens who have invested years of confidence in your newspaper?

Don't leave this to your Vancouver staff to clean up Eddy. This poll was created east of the Rockies and, as a subscriber to your newspaper, I want answers now.

I'd like to hear what Norman Spector has to say about his beloved paper's bias.

GM just another paper that has joined into the blanket wash of media concentration covering Canada. Be it Canwest or Bell...whoever...proves media can be bought.
( literally ). The GM was one of the last standouts ( or so I thought ) They will joining the long list of papers I wont read now..news stations I wont watch..etc. I can see through the BS...sad that so many ( the ones they are counting on ).... cant. I still get surprised looks when I tell people that most media in Canada is owned by one or two companies and news is def. " filtered ". Gotta go toss the very sad weekend edition of the GM in the trash.. that pathetic and biased editorial put me right over the edge.

No Ron, it is not evil to be a Christian, but most Christians do not believe in doing what the BC Liberals are doing. There is no way that Gordon Campbell has the so-called Christian vote.

Surprise, surprise! That a right wing newspaper full of infomercials for corporations would "cook" a poll right before an election. Hmm. seems to me that the local CTV tried that in the election that the Glen Clark NDP won.

When, a paper's main supporters are advertisers selling goods with bogus ads and great supporters of the Fiberals what did you expect?

Surprise, surprise! Tyee posters are whining and complaining about a "biased" media source other than their own.

Maybe thetyee.ca should teach others a lesson in objectivity. HAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA

Accorging to Krog, the NDP candidate in Nanaimo, Jesus would not be a Republican or Liberal. You can see now why I have such disdain for the secular left. I wouldn't want a left wing wacko party like the BC NDP near any of my children or granchildren. This godlees party is actually proud of who they are. I say banics them to the anals of history, never to rise again to plaque us with theie useless, illogical, hateful rhetoric. ( Now you know how I reaaly feel.xxxxxxxNDPxxxxxxx.

Perhaps, just perhaps, there is a silver lining around this shocker.

The election may well be much closer than many have thought given the skewed polling.

If that is the case, the hyena above may want to mute his chortling long enough to reconsider some of the tight races across the province.

I am certainly not writing this morning with dreams of an NDP majority, but it certainly would be nice to see the Liberals and some of their animal friends having to start looking over their shoulders.

And nothing would give me more pleasure than to see a few of the incumbent Liberal MLA's out on their ass.

I await that regardless of the final outcome because I know there are going to be Liberal losers who, in my eyes, will represent the leading edge of Liberal demise.

Ron Erwin, if you represent Christianity, I want absolutely nothing to do with it.

Your post above is entirely "hateful rhetoric" and suggests to me you haven't matured enough as a human being to step out of that mythical swamp you grew up in.

Well said, allan.

Ron, the only problem I have with the Fraser Valley wing, and fundamentalist Christianity in general, is the never-ending obsession on the part of its proponents with how I choose to live my life, even when I live non-violently and (mostly) within the law.

It's not evil to be a Christian, but being an inveterate busybody and obsessing about the private, legal activities of one's neighbors can lead to all manner of evil....

Ron Erwin says "I wouldn't want a left wing wacko party like the BC NDP near any of my children or granchildren"

So your children and grandchildren can wallow in $6. an hour paying job, after they get out of an oversized classroom that they had to bus to because their school closed.

Or perhaps they are one of the homeless that grace Vancouver's streets?

Or perhaps one of them is on a waiting list for medical treatment?

I can see your point...NOT...

You would probably vote for Stephen Harper too.

After feeling sick to my stomach when i saw that paper i then realized what absolute bullshit it probably was. Sure enough here we go again. The liberals are scared shitless about this election and have been pulling out all the stops since the damaging debate. They are so scared that the business council and corporate media are desperately clamouring to gain votes in the last few days with an all out pro-liberal barrage. How disgusting.
Their cynical efforts are an affront to democracy, just as the filthy rebublicans methods were in the last two us elections.
Win at any cost-wow, what progressive thinking!! Ghandi and Nelson Mandela would be proud! Greens vote NDP, Greens vote NDP!!!!

This is so depressing! It's to be expected that biases and passions would spill over on the eve of elections -- including The Tyee's, of course ("...tightest provincial election this decade", Monte?? ...though I'm continually puzzled by the Rons getting themselves all apoplectic on a daily basis about the left-wing bias of a publication that was expressly created to provide us with some balance to our right-wing CanWest monopoly.)

I used to have a lot of faith in the Globe as being conservative and business-centric and Toronto-centric and a bit stodgy but at least credible, fair and ethical. What's going on?

Gordon Campbell shows no signs of being a social conservative, so why would the right-wing Christians bother to vote for him? He can only hurt most residents of this province and this is not something that Christians would vote for.

There are always left-wing and moderate Christians who would never vote for the extreme right wing parties such as the BC Liberals.

By the way Ron, the NDP are the real liberals in BC. The NDP are moderates, not extremists.

I knew there had to be a reason for the polls results because that not what I'll hearing in the North Island. To the Frazer Valley folks, I was told about a fellow some time back that gave away food (bread and fish, wild I'm pretty sure) chased the bankers out of the church and ministered to the sick for free. Today he would be called a socialist and crucified. Not much has changed eh!

Couple of points:

1) it's distressing to see that the urge to censor is alive and well, as evidenced by BCMary and Gary's suggestion that the press should be prosecuted for printing news that biased, incorrect or that they don't like. The false news sections of the Criminal Code were struck down years ago as unconstitutional and we're better without them. And I don't think you'll get too far with the mischief provisions, which are there to protect property.

2) On polling generally, I recall reading during the American elections that the accuracy of polling had been reduced because there were so many people who used cellphones as their only contact and pollsters were not allowed to call cellphones. Anyone aware if this is the situation in Canada as well?

I imagine it would be safe to assume that people who use cellphones as their only contact are not demographically identical to the rest of the population and that their absence from the sample might skew things one way or another.

note the writer said "tightest provincial election... this decade" not in a decade. It's a meaningless rhetorical intro but it's not untrue. Should have been left out all together or maybe just referred to as a fairly tight election or something a little less intended to get the blood boiling.

Having said that, I'm saddened the G&M would pull such BS. I've just purchased one this morning but haven't opened it yet.

I say banics them to the anals of history, never to rise again to plaque us with theie useless, illogical, hateful rhetoric.

Oh, Ron, your Freudian slip is showing!

And I thought CanWest Global took the prize for the least objective, agenda driven media company in Canada!
It looks like this week the Globe takes the prize.
Perhaps their mistake was in hiring Alan Gregg
to do their polling. Maybe they put more trust in him to be objective than was justified.
My question is: Who is most to blame for this, Gregg, or the Globe?

As I've said many a time, give me the results you expect and I'll help you design your poll.

Hence we have a (very) Strategic Council poll with the Liars 13 points ahead while a Robbins Research poll has the NDP ahead by nine.

What? you haven't read about the Robbins poll? I wonder why. But I'm glad the media chose to ignore that one; it might have made the soft left a little complacent.

Yes, this is a very close election, and reminds me a lot of 1996. I predict the Liars will win the popular vote by about two per cent. Each party will elect 39 MLAs with Kamloops deciding the election again.

Gotta go now, there's another hundred or so doors to knock on today.

There may be back-door promises made to these people who appear to be the pharasees Jesus warned about, as evidenced by their behaviour and words.

When the BC Liberal team's God is Carl Rove and a bastardized version of 'the free market', it only stands to reason they'd make a deal with you know who. What surprises me is that the fundamentalist community would risk its tax free status by organizing politically and also risk this secular nation's policy of tolerance which allows them the religious freedom that they take completely for granted.

A popular whine among fundamentalists is that they are being persecuted! (because they have to live in a secular world - I guess, even though Jesus himself, addressed these issues by saying be in the world, not of it. And, render onto Ceasar) I worry about this because I'm afraid that when this movement plays out globally and there is a massive backlash against Christians, there may be real persecution. And, I worry that those among them who actually are Christain , will suffer.

Jesus said many things. Nothing about same sex marriage. Not even anything about abortion. Although he did say a lot about children already born. He did say the highest command was two fold. To love God first, and to love one's neighbour as one's self.

His focus was the care of the poor, the suffering and the outcasts in society. On comforting the afflicted. On tolerance and not judging others.

Jesus was a socialist who loved God. It can't be denied.

AMEN!! Fortunately, for all of us NO political party has a hold on Christianity but do check out the Christian leaders who founded the NDP!!

As Big Jean said" The only poll to trust is the election day poll."

Seriously, the role of newspapers and journalist needs to be examined by an ethics committee.

They should be there to give FACTS to help people decide and NOT endorsements which only show how much thay are manipulated by big business and/or their owners.

So here is the latest Castanet poll from Kelowna: http://www.castanet.net/cgi-bin2/newNews/news_list.cgi?method=show_story&page=11

If this holds expect a BIG NDP majority as this is the right wing area of all right wing areas and note the drop in Green support to about 5%.

Do you REALLY want to vote Green and get the LIBERALS big times again?!

Ron Erwin disengenuously asks: "What's wrong with the Fraser Valley wing of the BC Liberal Party. ... Is it now evil to be a Christian ? Is it now evil to be conservative ? No wonder the NDP are going down bigtime."

The support of the Christian Right, heavily centred in the Fraser Valley, but also in the Okanagan and the Peace country, is an integral element in the provincial Liberal voting coalition. Federally, of course, these people will have nothing to do with anything called either Liberal or liberal, but that's another story.

The point is that any rational political reporter is going to mention this religious element in one party's support base, just as they incessantly mention labour and unions in the NDP's support base. At least, that's what the media are going to do if they are making any attempt to be balanced. Rod Mickleburgh doesn't do that.

This is the god of advertising at work. Polls that serve and advertise corporate interests. Mass media that does the same.

Product. Image of product. Sell image.

Sell, sell, sell.

Quality of product is meaningless in this game of mass indoctrination by branding.

On Sunday, the busy soccer moms and dads mindlessly buy an image of running shoes. On Monday they mindlessly buy an image of an SUV. On Tuesday they mindlessly buy the image of a government.

Buy, buy, buy.

None of it based on the quality of truth or based in reality itself. Just deceptive ephemeral images. The flimsy stuff of dreams ...or remnants of nightmares. Take your pick.

Newspapers have become just another department, just another convenient, and yes, effective wing of a now global corporate ad agency. Another door at the service of the privileged few.

And Canada is being lined up now, province by province, neo-con premier by neo-con premier, domino by domino...the recent shifts by the Globe...the shifts by the keel that once balanced this country, the CBC... the shift towards Harper...they are not coincidental but slyly orchestrated. The dominos are dangerously tilting. And not in our favour.

This is a more gentle, more neighbourly war than the one waged against Iraq... but a war just the same. But much more perilous in its ability to fool.

Excellent shot. I'm still chuckling. Nailed the bugger right in the anal.

I feel validated with my decision years ago to not buy the dailies, as this confirms, yet again, that they are unfairly biased. It doesn't surprise me that the Liberals would sink to dirty tactics so close to the election. They don't care if at a later date, they are found to be out of order. They got away with it for now. What makes me happy is that this action shows that the Liberals know it will be close, and they are running scared and doing all they can to influence the vote at the last minute. The more Liberal BS I see, the more I wave my NDP signs proudly!

Whoa, I don't know how you lefties can soldier on in the face of such heinous diabolical adversity....

...but cheer up, the Georgia Straight endorsed a full gaggle of NDPers with a sprinkle of Greenies and a token Wally Oppal bringing up the rear for the how do you say...Fiberals

Now if you can just get out the BC Bud vote

Hey mannnnnnnnnnnnn, wanna do some votingggg

Well spoken, Lynn.

The change is nearly complete.

More people now think that their and their families interests and the interests of corporations are interchangeable.

That the political party that vows to make smooth the way for corporate entities is the political party that also has their families best interests at heart.

That tax reductions and deferrals for corporations don't amount to an increased reliance for revenue on taxes from middle class citizens. And that reduced tax revenue from corporations means much, much less likelihood of a meaningful reduction in the tax load for middle class families.

People have once again bought into a parallel notion similar to the old "What's good for General Motors is good for America".

Excellent commentary, Lynn.

Who knew Canada had so many traitors.

On Friday, I asked about margin of error and suggested that the methodology might be suspect if the margin of error was larger than for the other polls. This confirms my suspicion. As the old saying goes: "figures don't lie, but liars can figure".

If I was trying to motivate demoralized campaign workers, the timing of this admission couldn't have been better. If this poll is wonky, then the election is clearly closer than Globe and Mail would have us believe.

As for Alan Gregg, guess he'll do anything for anyone, won't he?

Ain't going to comment on the Christianity debate of this thread, except to say that the framers of the U.S. constitution were smart to talk about separating the church and the state. I'll let others comment about the effectiveness of recent practices.

what a great day! more blather than ever before. pump on!

It's a little strange that the only people making a big deal of this poll are you. This poll was largely blown off due to it's high margin or error, small sample size and strange results. But as usual thetyee.ca is making a huge deal about nothing.

Those that work in market research, like me, have good reason to be concerned about this poll because it's an example of how easily the technology of the industry can be misused and results can be misconstrued.

Oooooo, Lynn gal, an outstanding snippet of analysis and insight, such as you are famous for. None cut closer to the quick or the bone than thee.

"This godlees party is actually proud of who they are. I say banics them to the anals of history, never to rise again to plaque us with theie useless, illogical, hateful rhetoric."

Well, plaque my anals before I banic!

I thinc I'm gled I'll niver git to heeven.

To update an old saying, the religious right is neither.

The religious right is antichrist.

I just heard a Liberal radio ad on CKNW that brags that the Vancouver Sun, The Province, and the Victoria Times Colonist are all 3 endorsing the B.C. Liberal Party!The ad would like you to believe that sober independent thought by editorial boards went into these endorsements.
Unfortunately, the ad doesn't explain that all 3 are Canwest papers and that the papers' owners, the Aspers, literally give marching orders to their editorial boards when they wish to promote an "official" company position. We can safely assume the papers were literally forced to endorse the Liberals. Recall the firing of the Ottawa Citizen editor for writing his own mind on Chretien (saying Chretien should resign as PM).
There seems to be a lot of manipulation going on , with suspect opinion polls and phoney endorsements, all skewed toward the Liberals.

I just returned from Venezuela, which has twice elected a socialist president, Hugo Chavez. Chavez calls himself a socialist and often invokes Christ in his speeches. For example, speaking to citizens at San Carlos, state of Cohedes on January 10, 2003 he said, "You are the most powerful force that exists between heaven and earth, after God, you, the sovereign people of Venezuela" and went on to say later, "God is with us! Who is against us? We walk along the path of God, we walk along the path of Christ, the Redeemer of the peoples and the Lord of Venezuela".

Under Chavez, education has improved for ordinary citizens, there is real land reform and the state enterprises are firmly under state control. This is particularly true of the oil industry, a point not lost by the Americans, who promoted a failed coup in Venezuela three years ago.

There are many Christian Socialists in the world. While I am not one of them, I do see the connection between the real teachings of Christ and their extension to the political world. He did, after all, expel the money lenders from the temple. Perhaps now, if we could just get rid of Campbell and his money lenders.