1. Product review: Public opinion polls
Leanne Trimble
University of Toronto
DLI Ontario Training
Dec 7, 2016

2. Overview
Opinion poll: A human research survey of public opinion on a topic(s) Conducted by polling firms, government bodies, academic institutions, non-profit organizations (and combinations thereof)

3. Pollsters
Archives
Portals

4. Who conducts Canadian polls?
Polling firms
Environics Research Group
Ipsos Reid
Leger Marketing
Forum Research
Gallup / Canadian Institute for Public Opinion (CIPO) – no longer active
Pollara
Harris/Decima - International firm with operations in Canada
Plus others
Research organizations (academic or non-profit)
Institute for Social York
Environics Institute
Latin America Public Opinion Project Vanderbilt
Government bodies & related organizations
Centre for Research & Information on Canada (CRIC)
Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation
Health Canada, Industry Canada, and others….
Polls are often conducted by contract from academic or government partners, or even other polling firms
CIPO was the Canadian affiliate set up by the Gallup Organization. Gallup is no longer active in Canada.
Others that we don’t seem to have in our archives:
Abacus Data
EKOS Research Associates
Latin America Public Opinion Project Vanderbilt – AmericasBarometer - includes Canada

5. Pollsters
Archives
Portals

6. Canadian Opinion Research Archive (CORA)
Housed at: Queen’s University
Date range: 1970s to present (2013)
Polling organizations included
Decima: Decima Quarterly (full run)
Environics Research Group: Focus Canada ; Focus Ontario much more
Environics Institute: Focus Canada 2010-present
Canadian Election Studies – more on that from Liz!
Centre for Research & Information on Canada (CRIC)
Communication Canada – Listening to Canadians
Environment Canada, Health Canada, Industry Canada, Public Works & Government Services Canada – poll from the 2000s
Access: CORA Nesstar Repository (online analysis, no download). Also searchable in ODESI.
Harris/Decima – Decima Quarterly has been reinvigorated “The mood of Canada: Quarterly report on public policy”
The Centre for Research and Information on Canada is an organization established in 1996 by the Canadian Unity Council to manage its research and communications activities. The Canadian Unity Council was a privately owned non-profit organization whose mission was the promotion of Canadian Unity and the current federal institutions.

7. 1. Environment Canada
2. Environics Institute Focus Canada special poll on climate change in 2013

8. Carleton University Library – Data Services
Date range:
Polling organizations included:
Gallup/CIPO:
POLLARA (formerly Insight Canada) – Perspectives Canada
Canadian Millennium Scholarship Foundation (CMSF): Canadian College Student Surveys ; Ontario College & University Applicant Surveys ; Student Financial Survey
Centre for Research & Information on Canada (CRIC)
Communication Canada – Listening to Canadians
Leger Marketing – Voice of the People
Full holdings listing here
Access: ODESI (searching open; tabulation & download - Ontario universities & other subscribing academic institutions)
CRIC – overlap with CORA (CRIC was the research arm of the Canadian Unity Council
Communications Canada – overlap with CORA
Note: Leger conducted Voice of the People for Gallup International
Gallup/CIPO – Roper also has these, also ends in 2000 (note: not in ipoll, use dataset search). Not clear if there actually were any polls past 2000 – Carleton’s website says there were, but I don’t see evidence of them. Clear that sometime after 2000 Gallup/CIPO stopped being active in Canada.

11. Laurier Library + Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy (LISPOP)
Date range: 1990 – 2007 Released
Ipsos Reid (Angus Reid) polls included:
Ipsos Reid
National Angus Reid Polls – public opinion polling
nearly monthly, 1990 to 1995
Dominion Institute – Canada Day Polls, Citizenship Polls
2001 to 2007
Ipsos Reid Federal Election Exit Poll 2007
Access: ODESI (OCUL members); Contact WLUL or LISPOP
Status
Library has secured a second donation of files to 2015
Undergoing assessment and ingest
Ongoing work to revise Laurier-OCUL MOU re access on ODESI
Does LISPOP archive any other polls? Polls they have conducted themselves?
Only internal surveys. Wouldn’t be for distribution
The National Angus Reid Polls are general public opinion polling,
running “nearly monthly”
Variety of topics – politics, bilingualism, global affairs, taxation, job security oaths of allegiance, religion, etc.
Whatever is topical that day
National Angus Reid Polls are separate and distinct from the Angus Reid Institute, which is a not-for-profit that was formed well after the sale of Angus Reid to Ipsos.
Dominion Institute
Merged into what is now Historical Foundation
Surveys commissioned by DI on Canadian culture, peoples’ knowledge of Canada, its history, society, etc.
Ipsos Reid Federal Election Poll
Exit poll of 2006 Federal Election
Laurier Library has 19 other election polls (various provinces) currently being assessed as part of a second donation.
Release some time in 2017 (fingers crossed).
Access
Currently on ODESI but only metadata is available for view.
Laurier and OCUL are working on a new MOU to address this.
Future
Laurier Library has entered into a new MOU with Ipsos that will deliver more survey data to its Archives
Will be fully OA
Undergoing assessment and ingest into Dataverse. Release date some time in 2017 (fingers crossed)

12. Ipsos Reid conducted on behalf of Dominion institute which has now become.

14. University of Toronto Political Science Department + U of T Libraries
Date range: 2013-present
Polling organizations included:
Forum Research: Municipal, Provincial & Federal issues polls 2013-present
Access: Political Science Data Archive Dataverse (OCUL institutions + on request). Will also be searchable in ODESI soon.

15. Forum Federal Issues 2016 poll

16. Queen’s University Library
Date range: 2014-present
Polling organizations included:
Angus Reid Institute various polls 2014-present
Access: Queen’s University Library Dataverse (publicly avaialble) and ODESI

18. University of Ottawa Library
Date range:
Polling organizations included:
Leger Marketing – Voice of the People polls in French & English
Access: ODESI (searching open; tabulation & download - OCUL + subscribing institutions)

20. Roper Center
US-based public opinion archive which collects Canadian data
Date range: 1940s-2003
Canadian polling organizations included:
Gallup/CIPO: (Duplicates Carleton archive in ODESI)
Angus Reid: (Some overlap with LISPOP collection in ODESI)
Miscellaneous other polls:
Kaiser Family Foundation poll on unplanned pregnancy 1995
Canadian-American Survey 1989,
“Left-Right Hand Study” 1960s
Access: Roper Center (subscription-based)
some can be downloaded online, others must be requested. No iPoll variable search

21. ICPSR
US-based social science data archive which collects some Canadian data (not a huge amount)
Date range: 1960s-1990s
Primarily non-commercial research groups, e.g.:
Annexation to the United States 1964; Opinions of the urban public of Canada on Canadian-American Relations (Social Research Group, Montreal)
Access: ICPSR (subscription based)

22. Pollsters
Archives
Portals

23. Review: Main access points
ODESI
Contents
Includes the main collections archived at academic institutions in Canada
Search & link to CORA
Search & link to ICPSR
Access
Search tool & variable browse/frequencies is openly available
Data download - accessible to all Ontario academic institutions; outside Ontario available to subscribing institutions
No ODESI?
CORA (Anyone can view variables/frequencies, no download)
Roper Center (Subscription-based)
ICPSR (Subscription-based)
For university-based archives, first search ODESI, then contact the relevant archive directly; most have agreements allowing them to share for academic research

24. What’s missing? Recent polls
Many of the archives stop in the 1990s or 2000s
Firms don’t want to donate their work to archives until they can no longer profit off them
For recent data, generally no datasets are available for download
Must rely on published reports – from the polling firms (try their websites) or other organizations that commissioned the studies
A great source for reports of government-commissioned studies is Government of Canada’s Public Opinion Research Reports website (2006-present)
As of August 1, 2006, the Communications Policy of the Government of Canada requires all federal departments and agencies to deposit with Library and Archives Canada the final reports of all public opinion research for which a contract was awarded. Departments are required to deposit those reports within six months of the completion of the data collection for public opinion research.
This website provides access to information about public opinion research contracted after August 1, 2006 for which the final reports have been submitted to Library and Archives Canada. 

25. Beyond Canada US public opinion polls International polls
Roper Centre (subscription)
ICPSR (subscription)
Pew Research Centre (free - datasets released about 5 months after they are conducted)
International polls
Polling the Nations (subscription)
Afrobarometer (free)
Eurobarometer (free interactive browse tool; data download via ICPSR or GESIS)
AmericasBarometer (free - includes Canada)
World Values Survey (free)
No time to cover this in detail – maybe next year if interested!
Need to check on Eurobarometer content in ICPSR vs GESIS, is GESIS free?
Polling the Nations is an online database of public opinion polls containing the full text of 600,000+ questions and responses, from 18,000+ surveys and 1,700+ polling organizations, conducted from 1986 through the present in the United States and more than 100 other countries around the world.

26. Questions?