The Perfect Thursday Brunch

More Problems With Talk Vancouver

I have a large number of misgivings about Talk Vancouver.   Those concerns are exacerbated by the discovery that the survey of the Grandview-Woodland Citizens’ Assembly has been altered over time.

One of my correspondents attempted to complete the survey on January 27th but for various reasons wasn’t able to finish.  Therefore, she saved the forms to her own computer as a PDF file.  On February 4th she went back to the site and completed the form, once again saving the files.   When looking through the documents she was perceptive enough to notice that the order of items on some lists had been changed.

In the section on Guiding Principles, the lists associated with questions 1 and 4 were altered.  Same thing with question 1 in the Representation section.

Experts on survey making have been aware for many decades that the order in which questions are asked, or the order in which choices are listed, can have a significant effect on response.  This kind of psychology and sociological statistics is way above my pay grade, but even a layman has to ask what the purpose might have been to changing these questions.

Were they not getting the answers they wanted, for example?  Will the City report two different sets of responses based on the two sets of questions?  Will Talk Vancouver explain what’s going on here?

Whitebait

 

POTD #6

CRÈME BRULEE

 

 

To make a crème brulee

take a luscious creamy custard

and a butane torch

and burn the bugger to bits

 

cocaine and speed were her butane

her body and brain the custard.

That was her life she was burning

though she thought they were just desserts