A MATTER OF OPINION

The environment is just one example of how surveying the public can quickly become a minefield

Angus Mcallister knows that in the polling business, six of one doesn't always equal half a dozen of the other. Word choice can make a difference. “Use the wrong language and bad things will happen,” says Mcallister, founder of Vancouver-based Mcallister Opinion Research. “People have trouble talking to each other.”

He cites the Fort Mcmurray oil sands project. “Environmental groups began referring to the project as the tar sands,” Mcallister says. “But our polling suggests that if you refer to the industry as the oil sands, support for the project drops, probably because people have negative associations with Big Oil. Calling it the tar sands actually leads to more support.”

Likewise, when polling about attitudes toward pipelines, the framing of the question changes the responses. “A lot of environmentalists piss people off,” Mcallister says. “Even if people are initially onside, they lose them almost immediately because they start talking in language that implies survival isn't very important,” he adds. “Environmentalists who frame issues in terms of aesthetics and beauty as opposed to basic survival issues tend to set off alarm bells among those who are not as well off.”

For example, any poll question relating to water will get strong support because people understand that without water, there's no life, Mcallister explains. “But when environmentalists move away from survival values and start talking about other things like spirituality or beauty, that tells [lower-income people] that this person is completely out of touch and is going to be screwing things up for me.”

Mcallister has found similar attitudes when polling First Nations communities, a finding backed by Squamish Nation council member Khelsilem. “I think that for a lot of Indigenous communities, the dreams and aspirations are not dissimilar from everybody else,” he says. “Economic growth, raising their families, the freedom to have good-paying jobs, to participate in a lifestyle that they want to be able to support. A lot of Indigenous culture is based around concepts of utility. When you think about salmon or food resources, it makes sense to understand sustainable practices, not depleting resources. Those things have been practised for a long time.”

Of course, polling has its limitations, and pollsters understand that better than anyone. Mcallister once conducted a survey in B.C. that included a true-or-false question. “The statement was: `Science has proved that humans and dinosaurs walked the Earth at the same time,'” Mcallister recalls.

The good news: most participants accurately classified the statement as false. The bad news: the split was roughly 60/40. –S.B.