Mainstreet Research CEO admits they 'f*cked up' election polling

Oct 18 2017, 12:40 am

Well, that’s one way to admit fault.

The CEO of Mainstreet Research, the market research and polling firm that had predicted Bill Smith becoming mayor in the days leading up to the General Election, has been busy on Twitter since Naheed Nenshi’s re-election.

Quito Maggi, CEO, currently has this reply pinned to the top of his Twitter page: “Look, I get it, all the polls were awful in the end. Ours worst of all. We’re going to look at our entire process & figure out why.”

The Mainstreet Research poll released on October 13 pegged Smith to take the win with 47% of the vote, over Nenshi’s 36%.

After the final election results came in, it was clear that Mainstreet’s poll was severely incorrect, with a variance of +12.2 for Nenshi’s voters and -8.1% for Smith’s.

Maggi was responding to critics throughout the night, and wasn’t calling the poll anything other than what it was: completely wrong.

Some responded to his tweets with praise for his straightforward remarks, while others were not so easily swayed.

Maggi wasn’t the only one on Twitter after the election, as Calgary Flames Communications Director Sean Kelso blasted the re-elected mayor as being “worse than Trump” in a quickly deleted tweet.

See also
DH Calgary StaffDH Calgary Staff

+ News
+ Politics
ADVERTISEMENT