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June
1999 Newsletter
Chamber
of Commerce "Poll"
On
May 19, the Chamber of Commerce released a poll of 400 persons
which they commissioned at a cost of $5900. While some of
the media has misrepresented the results, they are quite
interesting, especially when compared to earlier polls.
In 1997, for example, a survey done by the same polling
company for the Hamilton Spectator, found that 78% supported
a north-south expressway, but only 40% wanted it in Red
Hill Valley. Ten percent were opposed to any route. The
Chamber's poll didn't offer respondents an opportunity to
say where they wanted the expressway to be built. Instead
the question read: "In your opinion are in favour or are
you opposed to the construction of the north-south extension
of the Red Hill Creek Expressway?" The Chamber reported
that only 60.3% of respondents supported a north-south expressway
— a significant drop since 1997. The number opposed
rose to 16.8% with the remainder being either indifferent
or undecided. If only 60% support a north-south expressway,
the results of the 1997 poll suggest that probably only
about 30% now support an expressway located in the Red Hill
Valley.
The
Chamber poll then took a very curious turn. Instead of accepting
the answers received, the pollsters pressed on with a series
of questions clearly designed to make respondents more favourable
to the expressway. The follow-up questions asked if the
respondents were aware that the project would reduce water
pollution, decrease stream erosion, improve fish habitat,
result in the planting of "acres of trees", provide new
hiking trails, etc. All of these alleged "improvements"
were highly opinionated. The pollsters also falsely claimed
the expressway will only cost taxpayers $15 a year per household.
After presenting this completely one-sided set of "facts",
the pollsters repeated their original question. The number
opposed to the road remained exactly the same, but a portion
of the indifferent and undecided went down, and the number
supporting a north-south expressway went up to 69.8%. Some
media chose to report this latter figure, but it is obvious
that this type of biasing of results is highly questionable.
There
were two other interesting aspects to the poll. One was
that even when the cost was falsely reduced to $15 per year,
only 64.3% said such an increase would be acceptable. The
other was that the 'are you aware' questions revealed that
50% "were unaware that the expressway was now being proposed
as a four-lane road", nearly 70% were"not aware of plans
to reduce spills of raw sewage", and 75% were "unaware of
proposed improvements to fish habitat and water quality".
In short, the poll showed there is a great need for a thorough
public examination of the proposed project. The Chamber
of Commerce, however, didn't draw this conclusion.
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