Mainstreet's IVR-and-mixed-mode methodology partially corrects
PASS 5 — FOLLOW THE MONEY: The Canadian Media-Pollster-Gover
The correlation between principal partisanship and poll accuracy is essentially zero.
PASS 5 — FOLLOW THE MONEY: The Canadian Media-Pollster-Gover
Mainstreet is the most accurate firm with 1.2 point total error in 2025.
PASS 5 — FOLLOW THE MONEY: The Canadian Media-Pollster-Gover
the major federal pollsters collect $14–19 million per year in Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) public-opinion research contracts
PASS 5 — FOLLOW THE MONEY: The Canadian Media-Pollster-Gover
IVR pollsters had the best 2025 performance
Pass 2: The Forensics, the Math, and the Philosophy of Canad
The distribution of last digits looks plausibly uniform
Pass 2: The Forensics, the Math, and the Philosophy of Canad
Mainstreet's methodology uses IVR with demographic and regional weighting
Pass 2: The Forensics, the Math, and the Philosophy of Canad
The 2017 Calgary failure was diagnosed by the Adams/Adams/Zussman MRIA panel report
Pass 2: The Forensics, the Math, and the Philosophy of Canad
Mainstreet's IVR-and-mixed-mode methodology, with random-digit-dial cell-and-landline contact, picks up these voters and is correspondingly more accurate
PASS 5 — FOLLOW THE MONEY: The Canadian Media-Pollster-Gover
Mainstreet Research has no documented partisan tilt.
PASS 5 — FOLLOW THE MONEY: The Canadian Media-Pollster-Gover
These are things people say about Mainstreet Research that aren't settled fact — each one attributed to who's actually claiming it, so a claim never quietly passes as established just because it showed up in a document. Weigh it yourself.
"Mainstreet's reforms are real"
"political polling for these firms is marketing"
"the incentive is to maximize visibility, which means publishing frequently and being part of the story — not necessarily to maximize accuracy"
"Anti-SLAPP protects the journalist; it does not protect against the pollster simply refusing to give interviews"
"the single most damaging fact for pollster independence is not who pays for the polls — it is who runs them"
"Mainstreet's 2025 result is partially unverifiable"
"The deliberate-rigging hypothesis is not supported by the fact that the most accurate firm is the least federally networked."
"political polling for these firms is marketing"