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metroNEWS
Olympic bid survey biased, professor says MUNICIPAL MATTERS
‘No denying’ it pushes the pro side — though officials do deny Helen Pike
Metro | Calgary
Calgarians will soon be able to adopt a feline friend at the Regal Cat Café. ELIZABETH CAMERON/ FOR METRO
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A survey released Wednesday by the Calgary Bid Exploration Committee is garnering a different kind of feedback. Amanda Williams, an adjunct professor teaching research methods at MRU, said the survey is weighted to the “pro” bid outcome. The preamble as written has commentary that doesn’t cite readily available sources to tell the reader what to make of it. “It definitely favours the pro bid side, there’s no denying,” Williams said. “The entire
survey is quite strongly constructed on the pro side and wouldn’t necessarily have had to be that way.” Williams went through the survey and counted line-for-line the pro and con statements, looked at the language used and hyperboles such as billions in economic benefits versus millions in cost. Her conclusion: it’s biased. Sean Beardow, CBEC spokesperson, said their intent was to develop a publicly accessible tool to give Calgarians the opportunity to share how they feel about the Olympic Bid, good or bad. “We worked with a reputable research company,” Beardow said. “Ensuring neutrality in everything we do is really a top consideration.” To further emphasize that neutrality, CBEC flips the order of pro and con narratives every time the survey is taken. More coverage, page 17