Canadian Election Study, 2004-2006

Telephone surveys, conducted during the campaign and after the election with a random sample of Canadians, provide data that can be used to help explain the election outcome. Within 17 months, Canadians again went to the polls and the result of the January 23, 2006 vote was a second minority government, but under the leadership of the Conservative Party.

Efforts were made to interview the respondents to the 2004 survey again for the 2006 survey and about one-half of the 2004 survey respondents also answered the 2006 survey. These re-interviews provide a panel or longitudinal sample component where a respondent’s answers to questions in the first survey can be compared to those of the second survey. Many of the questions asked in 2004 were repeated in the 2006 survey.