Polls are most frequent and official around election time, but you can never let your guard down.
Your opinion might be tabulated in places where you least expect it.
According to a Saskatoon Star Phoenix article last July, an exhibition program manager said he heard “good feedback” about the exhibition.
The paper said the manager has been known to conduct coffee shop polls and loiter around public telephones on the exhibition grounds to gauge public opinion.
Nothing was mentioned about information absorbed from bathroom stalls – either written on them or overheard through them – but one must assume that environment was also fair game.
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True statisticians will protest such unorthodox methods, which could lead to inaccurate data. But it does present an interesting challenge.
Think of how many other ways polls can be done. For example, what information can be gleamed from counting trucks in rural areas?
Count the number of pick-up trucks outside an arena. This reflects the skills and popularity of the local hockey team.
Check the number of grain trucks at the elevator. This indicates how backed up the grain system is on the Prairies.
The greater the number of trucks sitting with their motors running outside the coffee shop, the colder the temperature.
The number of trucks carrying snowmobiles show the snow is deep – or completely absent, as it was earlier this winter. Trucks falling through the ice on lakes indicates ice thickness. A large number of new trucks might indicate grain prices are high. Missing tail pipes and bumpers reflect low maintenance on roads.
And the number of cattle trucks outside the auction market reflects how many people are fed up with feeding those critters in winter cold.
