Welcome to the first episode of Season 2 of inFocus with David Coletto.
Former PM Kim Campbell is notorious for saying that an election is no time to discuss serious issues. That might be true, but it turns out the best way to win an election campaign may be to run on issues that voters care about and want action on. Donald Trump did it. Boris Johnson did it. And Justin Trudeau did it.
That's what I learned from my chat with David Shor, an American data scientist who worked on the 2012 Obama campaign, the 2015 Canadian Liberal campaign, and currently is the head of data science at Open Labs, a progressive non-profit.
On the 2012 Obama campaign, Shor worked on the team that developed a polling model that projected Obama’s vote share within 1 percentage point in eight of the nine battleground states. Prior to working on the Obama campaign, David also worked alongside Nate Silver.
A recent New York Magazine article by Eric Levitz that got a lot of attention describes David as “a self-avowed socialist who insists that big-dollar donors pull the Democratic Party left. An adherent of Leninist vanguardism and the median voter theorem. And someone who can answer any question about US politics by referencing at least three peer-reviewed studies.
He’s recently appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe and HBO’s the Bill Maher show. So the obvious next booking was inFocus with David Coletto, right?
I’m thrilled he agreed to chat. We talked about his thoughts on polling, campaigns, and the simple but important lesson that running election campaigns on issues people care about works.
This week, millions of students across Canada will be going back to school and education and our education system will be top of mind to millions of parents and educators. There’s no doubt the pandemic has had a profound impact on children. It has put many of their parents out of work, surrounded their homes in grief and anxiety, and kept them out of schools that teach and care for them. It has been a very lonely time for Canadian children. With two weeks left to go in the federal election campaign, I wonder, why haven’t heard more about education on the campaign trail. On this episode of inFocus, I’m joined by Sam Hammond, the President of the Canadian Teachers Federation. Sam just started his two-year term as the Federation's president in July 2021. Prior, Sam was President of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario. He has taught all grades from JK to grade eight and was an instructor in the Labour Studies Program at McMaster University. The Canadian Teachers Federation represents over 300,000 elementary and secondary school teachers across Canada. Sam and I spoke about the role of public education in federal politics, some polling Abacus Data did for the Federation, and what he’s hoping to hear from federal parties and candidates in the final weeks of the campaign. ...
According to the Canadian Real Estate Association, the national average home price in September 2021 was $686,650 – an increase of 27% from before the pandemic. In Greater Toronto – the average home price is almost $1.1 million. In Greater Vancouver, it’s close to $1.2 million. To say that housing has become unaffordable in most parts of Canada is an understatement. Two weeks ago, RBC released its latest housing affordability measure. It jumped 2.7% in the last quarter – the biggest quarterly increase in more than three decades. During the past election, housing affordability was a top issue for millions of Canadians – especially those under 40 who aspire to own a home but feel that dream is becoming harder and harder to achieve. On this episode of inFocus, I’m joined by Michael Bourque, the Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Real Estate Association. CREA represents more than 135,000 real estate brokers, agents, and salespeople working through 78 real estate Boards and Associations across Canada. Michael and I spoke about housing affordability, the politics of the issue, and what is needed from government policy to make the dream of homeownership a reality for more Canadians. ...
Joe Biden wouldn't be President without the surge in turnout of young voters in the US. On this episode of inFocus, I’m joined by John Della Volpe the founder and CEO of SocialSphere and for 21 years, he has been the Director of Polling at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics where he has led the research program exploring the attitudes and opinions of America’s Millennials and Generation Z. John also recently served as a pollster for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris’s 2020 campaign where he focused on youth research. John and I have gotten to know each other over the past few years after he met while he visited Ottawa in 2019. I had a lot of fun speaking with John. Hope you enjoy it. ...
