Polling and Public Opinion: A Canadian Perspective.

Paul G. Thomas is a political science professor at the University of
Manitoba and the co-author of Canadian Public Administration:
Problematical Perspectives.

Most Canadians know little about the new technologies of politics and governing represented by polling, focus groups, psycho-demographic analysis, targeted messaging, and the ubiquitous use of “spin” to shape public opinion. This book seeks to take some of the mystery out of polling, the most widely recognized of these techniques.

In six chapters Peter M. Butler provides a very sophisticated analysis of the social basis of public opinion, the methods for collecting and analyzing opinion and the mass media, the interplay between poll findings and the substance of social policy, and the extent of continuity versus change in Canadians’ values and opinions. He uses the concept of “moral panic” to highlight the emotional and volatile nature of opinions compared to values that are more enduring. Moral panic arises when there is a perceived threat to the societal value system. Governments have invested more in “reading” public opinion and have made growing use of the new technologies to manage their policy agendas so as to create the appearance that they are governing on the basis of a social consensus.

Butler reports that, in 2003–2004, the government of Canada spent $18 million on polling. It is necessary to put that number in perspective by mentioning that the total spending was over $200 billion. Also, with the prevalent public mood of cynicism, there is a strong tendency to mistrust the messenger, no matter how sophisticated the techniques involved with the crafting of the message. It is true, nevertheless, that polling has fundamentally changed the activities of politics and governing over the past four decades and, to gain a better appreciation of the transformation, this is a book worth reading. The book will be particularly useful to students in public policy and public administration courses, to people who work in government, and to citizens interested in how politicians seek to shape public opinion.