No bias in online Vote Compass, CBC says
The CBC is standing by its online tool that purports to tell users which party reflects their policy preferences, but critics say skews Liberal.
Blogs and websites are rife with discussion about the public broadcaster's Vote Compass; on Tuesday a new Facebook group emerged called "CBC -Take Down the Bogus Vote Compass."
Conservative MP Tony Clement tweeted on Wednesday that he met a Tory voter in his riding whose results skewed Liberal. "[A] guy I canvassed today tried CBC Vote Compass, gave Mr Ignatieff low marks, & was told he's a Liberal! He put my sign up," wrote the Parry SoundMuskoka candidate, who was Industry Minister until the election was called on Saturday.
The online tool, comprised of 30 statements to which users respond on a spectrum of "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree," was crafted by Canadian researchers to help voters determine how their " individual opinions on policy compare with each of the election platforms of the candidates running for office," according to Vote Compass' website.
"Vote Compass is something we have introduced as a means for people to engage with the issues on the elec-tion," said Jeff Keay, a spokesperson for the CBC. "There is [no bias] -not as far as we know. We have a high level of confidence that the methodology is sound."
A Toronto researcher who helped develop the questionnaire said it is "not a predictive tool," and is rather intended to give voters a sense of how their views square with the platforms of the political parties.
"What we're trying to say is, based on these 30 questions, here's where the parties fall," said Clifton van der Linden, a University of Toronto political science PhD candidate and executive director of Vote Compass, which partnered with the CBC for the initiative. "You can be a Conservative, an NDP, or any ideological stripe -the tool is not meant to tell you to change that stripe at all."
A Queen's University political science professor publicly denounced Vote Compass after she completed the quiz numerous times with varying strategies, and each time earned a Liberal result.
"Each time, I came up in the centre, so I would be labelled a Liberal," she said, adding she does not believe the alleged bias is intentional. "There's a problem with having only the Liberals in the centre, because I don't think that's a fair representation of how the parties are putting together their platforms for this campaign, or even generally."
Mr. Van Der Linden said researchers relied on public documents, policy platforms, and even feedback from the parties themselves to determine where they landed -on each of the 30 questions -in a four-quadrant grid labelled with "economic right," "economic left," "social liberalism" and "social conservatism."
All of the parties, save for the Conservatives, reached out to Vote Compass prior to Saturday's launch to discuss discrepancies over their positioning on some of the statements, Mr. van der Linden said.
No bias in online Vote Compass, CBC says
The CBC is standing by its online tool that purports to tell users which party reflects their policy preferences, but critics say skews Liberal.
Blogs and websites are rife with discussion about the public broadcaster's Vote Compass; on Tuesday a new Facebook group emerged called "CBC -Take Down the Bogus Vote Compass."
Conservative MP Tony Clement tweeted on Wednesday that he met a Tory voter in his riding whose results skewed Liberal. "[A] guy I canvassed today tried CBC Vote Compass, gave Mr Ignatieff low marks, & was told he's a Liberal! He put my sign up," wrote the Parry SoundMuskoka candidate, who was Industry Minister until the election was called on Saturday.
The online tool, comprised of 30 statements to which users respond on a spectrum of "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree," was crafted by Canadian researchers to help voters determine how their " individual opinions on policy compare with each of the election platforms of the candidates running for office," according to Vote Compass' website.
"Vote Compass is something we have introduced as a means for people to engage with the issues on the elec-tion," said Jeff Keay, a spokesperson for the CBC. "There is [no bias] -not as far as we know. We have a high level of confidence that the methodology is sound."
A Toronto researcher who helped develop the questionnaire said it is "not a predictive tool," and is rather intended to give voters a sense of how their views square with the platforms of the political parties.
"What we're trying to say is, based on these 30 questions, here's where the parties fall," said Clifton van der Linden, a University of Toronto political science PhD candidate and executive director of Vote Compass, which partnered with the CBC for the initiative. "You can be a Conservative, an NDP, or any ideological stripe -the tool is not meant to tell you to change that stripe at all."
A Queen's University political science professor publicly denounced Vote Compass after she completed the quiz numerous times with varying strategies, and each time earned a Liberal result.
"Each time, I came up in the centre, so I would be labelled a Liberal," she said, adding she does not believe the alleged bias is intentional. "There's a problem with having only the Liberals in the centre, because I don't think that's a fair representation of how the parties are putting together their platforms for this campaign, or even generally."
Mr. Van Der Linden said researchers relied on public documents, policy platforms, and even feedback from the parties themselves to determine where they landed -on each of the 30 questions -in a four-quadrant grid labelled with "economic right," "economic left," "social liberalism" and "social conservatism."
All of the parties, save for the Conservatives, reached out to Vote Compass prior to Saturday's launch to discuss discrepancies over their positioning on some of the statements, Mr. van der Linden said.
No bias in online Vote Compass, CBC says
