Canadian Election Study, 2004-2008

<p>As a result of the Canadian Federal Election held on Monday June 28, 2004, the Liberal Party formed a minority government. 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.</p> <p>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. The remaining respondents to the 2006 survey were a random sample of Canadians.</p> <p>The 2008 Canadian Election Study consists of a survey with nearly 4500 eligible voters conducted during the second half of the election campaign. 3689 of these respondents completed a post-election survey as well. 1238 respondents who had participated in the 2004-2006 panel study were also interviewed after the election. All of the interviews were conducted by telephone. The final component of the study was a self-administered mail-back survey completed by 1939 respondents.</p>