Editor:
First off, I am not expressing an opinion about the George or about whether it should proceed or not. Not my place to do so and there are much more qualified people who can express those opinions.
What concerns me is the circumstances around the recent poll question. As someone who actually has books on statistics, probability theory, etc., which I actually read (rarely) and use to hit spiders with (mostly), I think that I am reasonably informed about the value and use of polls like this. They are roughly on a par with astrology columns in newspapers and have a similar range of error in most cases. However, they can be an indicator of the level of commitment to the question, so valuable nonetheless.
Dismissing the poll because of social media interest is like dismissing the last U.S. elections as unfair because of social media activity. Social media is the new signing a petition or telling your friends to vote. One might not like the answer, but that’s not the newspaper’s fault – and frankly, placing the caveat after the results was disappointing to me because I thought it was unnecessary. The poll was useful to get a flavour of the opinion trend, but anyone who regards it as a scientific tool with any more worth than examining goat entrails is misguided at best.
Chester Machniewski P.Eng., Gibsons
