British Columbia election study, 1979-1980

About this book

This survey, which contains three types of information, consists of interviews with 1,051 respondents conducted in the summer and fall of 1979 following the May 10 (provincial) and May 22 (federal) elections, and 808 telephone re-interviews in February 1980 immediately after the federal election of February 18, 1980. The data collected include extensive work-force participation for respondent and household members, in-depth analysis of issue positions, links to party and other measures of voting, party identification, political participation, political culture, and strategic or ''sophisticated'' voting. A second type of information involves electoral data from the polling divisions and constituencies in which respondents were interviewed. A third set of data on the social composition of neighborhoods was derived from the 1976 census. The field work for the surveys was conducted by Canadian Facts, Ltd. The sample design was a multi-stage, stratifed sample. Ten provincial ridings were pre-selected on the basis of political and geographical characteristics to give representation to interior, Vancouver Island, and metropolitan ridings, NDP and Social Credit strongholds as well as competitive ridings, and ridings divided by or contained within federal constituencies.