The Pollcast: Polling 101

There are two things you can be certain of when it comes to polls: thenumbers in them will keep changing, and sowill the way pollsters do their jobs.

• Podcasts: Subscribe to the CBCPollcast
• Canada Poll Tracker: Check out the latest projections

The polling industry has been in a state of flux over the last few decades as more polling firms have moved away from the traditional method of contacting people by phone to embraceonline polling.

While online polling can be more cost-effective than telephone polling and avoids the problemof falling response ratesthe task of recruiting and maintaining representative online panels of Canadians that can be as accurate as probabilistic sampling methodscomes with its own set of challenges.

To discuss how polling methodology is shifting and the role pollsters play in Canadian elections David Coletto, CEO of Abacus Data, joins host and CBC polls analyst ric Grenier on this week's episode ofThe Pollcastpodcast.

Listen to the full discussion above or subscribe to the CBCPollcastand listen to past episodes of the show.