IT'S NO COMPASS

Can we talk about CBC’s Vote Compass? I'd love to know if it's actually possible to assess someone’s political leanings or which party best represents their views and wishes without knowing why someone has a policy preference? Well, now that I think about it, would knowing one’s personal beliefs or the reasoning or intuition that got them there help much? Actually, would even knowing a person's hopes and intentions for a piece of legislation or policy illuminate things any better? For all of the above it looks like a negative from where I sit.

To illustrate, perhaps the best known case I can think of, and a particularly pertinent one at this moment, comes not from Canada but the United States. Bernie Sanders, the progressive independent senator from Vermont and the politician arguably the farthest left in mainstream American politics, has argued his whole career for radical reform to US trade policy. His leadership run against Clinton in 2015 included pushing for strong tariffs, ending or dramatically reducing free-trade, with pitches against open or loose borders.

Though the details matter, of course, with questions like those in CBC’s Vote Compass survey, would there be any way to assess where a person sharing the views of Bernie Sanders on major issues such as trade and immigration sits on the political spectrum? Surely not. And why would further inquiry into their thinking clear things up? Sanders or Trump or any of their followers, who we're told are on extreme opposite ends of the political spectrum, could tell you all about their interest in restricting border crossings and immigration, imposing harsh tariffs on China and other competitors, and how such policies are aimed at supporting America’s working class or closing some of the glaring holes in her national security. Okay. Great. Now add questions about foreign wars or childcare or reducing government inefficiencies and fraud. What will you have learned? Probably nothing. Probably less.

Given that reality, is there reason to suspect the same perfect opacity is eliminated by a far narrower survey and involving five parties rather than two, just like the Vote Compass offering for the upcoming Canadian election? What could questions regarding abortion or child care, prescription drugs or harm reduction [sic], military or humanitarian aid, funding for universities or federal agencies, or anything else possibly reveal? One’s political leanings, what party would best represent them, or who they will or should vote for? Unlikely.

So, what is revealed by taking the Vote Compass survey? For me at least, this disorienting political alignment assessment points to something rather strange. To my surprise, when I took the survey I found almost nothing I would hope the political class in Canada was and will be preoccupied with. There were vague, context-free questions about funding for child care and post-secondary institutions, puberty blockers and trans folks in sports, employment insurance and government hiring, Quebec sovereignty and the monarchy. There was nothing about, oh I don’t know, housing and homelessness, unemployment and job creation, organized crime and foreign influence, overarching drug or energy policy, freedom of expression generally, our commitment (or lack thereof) to NATO, and, well, so much more. Perhaps even more than all that, I found it shocking to find nothing at all related to what was learned from the pandemic or about our readiness for a future crisis of any sort. Really? Nothing? On such a universal and salient set of issues? Wow.

Though I’ve lived all across this country, taking the Vote Compass survey highlights for me that I don’t really recognize or respond to any of these parties or personalities or policies. I certainly don’t understand why any of those are being endorsed by anyone, least of all, curiously, from taking a national political survey. Maybe I’m a weird outlier. Fine. Still, CBC’s Vote Compass proposes to offer an evaluation telling folks where they sit on the political spectrum or who best represents their views — without, seemingly, providing details or asking questions likely to reveal as much. Is that how good artificial intelligence has gotten? Wild.