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Survey of Candidates Following the 40th General Election

Introduction

Phoenix Strategic Perspectives Inc. was commissioned by Elections Canada to conduct research related to the 40th federal general election. This research consisted of a survey of candidates.

Background

Elections Canada, an independent, non-partisan agency that reports directly to Parliament, is responsible for monitoring and conducting federal elections in Canada. The agency conducts post-election research after each general election.

In the wake of Canada's 40th federal general election, the agency wanted to conduct a census survey of participating candidates in order to assess satisfaction with the services provided by Elections Canada to candidates, satisfaction with the administration of the election, and trust in the agency for administering it. The main purpose, which was to improve services for future elections, is in line with the agency's new strategic plan as well as its core values.

The agency recently developed a five-year strategic plan (covering 2008‑2013) to ensure that it continues to 'deliver its statutory mandate in a fair, transparent, and effective manner'. The three strategic objectives for this five-year period are 'Trust', 'Accessibility' and 'Engagement'. Each of these is attended by a series of strategic initiatives designed to help the agency achieve them. The research conducted with candidates in the last general election will help the agency meet the strategic objectives of its five-year plan. It will also help the agency assess the extent to which it is seen to be living up to core values animating it, which are identified in the strategic plan. Among them are responsiveness to the needs of Canadians involved in the electoral process, as well as continuously earning and maintaining the public's trust.footnote 4

Research Activities

To address the research objectives, a survey was undertaken among candidates who ran in the last federal general election. In total, 877 candidates out of 1,601 completed the survey between January 25 and February 18, 2009footnote 5. This represents a very strong response rate of 59%. It is also worth noting that the refusal rate among candidates that were contacted was correspondingly low – just under 8%. Since this is a census survey, not a random sample of candidates, the results can only be generalized to the population surveyed. If this were a random sample survey, the overall results would be considered accurate within +/- 2.2%, 19 times out of 20.

The table on the following page presents a breakdown of survey respondents by key characteristics.

Breakdown of Completed Interviews
877
Electoral Status  
Elected 71
Not elected 806
Party Affiliation  
Member of party represented in House of Commons 510
Member of other party 330
Independent (no party membership) 37
Region  
Atlantic Canada 73
Quebec 208
Ontario 315
Prairies 165
British Columbia 110
Territories 6

For a complete overview of the methodology used in this research, please refer to the methodology note in the appendix.

Note to Readers

  • For editorial purposes, the terms 'candidates' and 'respondents' are used interchangeably to denote survey participants.
  • Unless otherwise specified, the total number of respondents for each question is 877. At times, the number of respondents who answered certain questions or answered in a certain way is provided. The following method is used to denote this: n=100, which means the number of respondents, in this instance, is 100. The number of respondents changes throughout the report because questions were often asked of sub-samples of the survey population (e.g. users of specific services). Accordingly, readers should be aware of this and exercise caution when interpreting results based on smaller numbers of respondents.
  • Some of the graphs do not total up to 100% due to rounding.
  • Demographic and other subgroup differences are identified in the report. The text describing these differences throughout the report is put in a box for easy identification. Only sub-group differences that are statistically significant or are part of pattern or trend are reported. The full breakdown of the grouping of characteristics for the subgroup analyses discussed in the report can be found in the report appendix.

Appended to this report are the following:

  • Methodology note
  • Breakdown of demographic sub-groups
  • Survey questionnaire (telephone version)
  • Background letters (main version)
  • Interviewer briefing note.

Footnote 4 Ibid

Footnote 5 The online survey was available from February 5‑23 in order to allow for last minute completions and requests to do the survey.