Elections Canada (EC), headed by the CEO, an agent of Parliament, is an independent, non-partisan agency that reports directly to Parliament. EC exercises general direction and supervision over the conduct of elections and referendums at the federal level.
EC required the services of a public opinion research supplier to conduct a baseline Survey of Official Agents following the 43rd federal General Election. This survey aimed to assess official agents' views and experiences with the 43rd General Election (GE) with regards to the financial obligations of the candidate campaign. An official agent is the person responsible for administering the candidate's campaign financial transactions and for reporting those transactions to Elections Canada as required by the Canada Elections Act.
Use of research: The information gained through this public opinion research will assist in the evaluation of EC's administration of the political financing regime. It will also assist in identifying areas where EC's various products and services may be improved.
Environics conducted a survey of official agents who submitted an electoral campaign return following the 2019 GE, through a self-administered online questionnaire.
Elections Canada provided Environics with contact information for 1,847 (unduplicated) Official Agents. A total of 608 Official Agents completed the survey, representing 33% of the records provided. The online survey was open from March 8 to 31, 2021.
The participating respondents have the following regional distribution:
| Total | Atlantic | Quebec | Ontario | MB/SK | Alberta | BC | Territories | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of completed interviews | 608 | 60 | 137 | 229 | 44 | 58 | 77 | 3 |
| % of completed interviews | 100% | 10% | 23% | 38% | 8% | 10% | 13% | 1% |
| % of total OA contacts | 100% | 9% | 24% | 36% | 8% | 10% | 13% | 1% |
This is an attempted census rather than a sample survey, and a margin of sampling error does not apply.
Note on timing: Although official agents are required to file campaign returns four months after election day, many campaigns requested extensions to submit the return, and some official agents were still completing their activities at the start of the survey. Nonetheless, those official agents who filed the campaign return within the prescribed timeframes may have experienced a 12 month gap between when they filed and the start of the survey, which could contribute to recall issues. As well, a few activities included in the survey (opening a campaign account, training materials and use of other services available during the campaign) occurred over 15 months prior and thus recall may be an issue for some. A few survey participants (and some who refused to participate) indicated the time gap was too great; this should be kept in mind when designing future research with this audience. It should be noted that some of the activities of the OAs may have been affected because wrapping up the campaign took place during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Environics designed a questionnaire that addresses the study objectives, with input and feedback from EC. it underwent numerous iterations prior to approval and translation. Environics also drafted an advance email from Elections Canada and the invitation email and reminders. The communications included all required information. EC was responsible for translation of all instruments.
The questionnaire median length was 17.5 minutes, and the average was 12.5 minutes. All research instruments are appended (Appendix B)
Environics sent out 50 English and 30 French pretest invitations on March 8, 2021 from which 14 interviews (9 English, 5 French) were completed. The pretest included standard, government-accepted probing questions on comprehension and appropriateness of language at the end of the survey, and no issues were identified. However, comments received from some OAs indicated the length of time that had passed between the election and the survey was detrimental to participation.
The survey was conducted according to the following steps:
All respondents were offered the opportunity to complete the survey in their official language of choice. All research work was conducted in accordance with the Standards for the Conduct of Government of Canada Public Opinion Research – Online Surveys, as well as applicable federal legislation (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, or PIPEDA). Environics registered the survey with the Research Verification Service (RVS) of the Canadian Research Insight Council (CRIC), to allow participants to verify the legitimacy of the survey, register a complaint, get information about the survey industry or ask technical questions about the survey.
Following data collection and prior to analysis, data analysts performed a data-cleaning and validation process, in accordance with the highest industry standards. Open-ended question data were coded and Environics designed banner tables in consultation with the project authority. Data tables were submitted in Excel and CSV format; verbatim comments were made available in an Excel document.
This survey consisted of 608 interviews with Official Agents. The response rate for the survey is 34 percent. The disposition of all contacts is presented in the following table:
| N | ||
|---|---|---|
| Total invitations | (c) | 1,838 |
| Total completes | (d) | 608 |
| Qualified break-offs | (e) | 77 |
| Disqualified | (f) | 12 |
| Not responded | (g) | 1,141 |
| Quota filled | (h) | 0 |
| Contact rate = (d+e+f+h)/c | 37.92 | |
| Response rate = (d+f+h)/c | 33.73 |