Pushy

The open channels of debate haven't been going so well for Saskatchewan's pro-nuclear forces, as concerned citizens have shown far more resistance than might have been expected through public meetings, letter-writing and all kinds of other activities. But now, a reader observes that at least one of the pro-nuclear forces is instead looking to push-polling as its means of trying to dictate the conversation:

I'm wondering if anyone else received a push poll last night over the phone regarding nuclear development in Saskatchewan. For the life of me I can't remember who was conducting the "survey", but some of the questions included:

"Would you be more or less likely to support the construction of a nuclear power plant if you knew that it created 3000 jobs for northerners?"; and

"Would you be more or less likely to support the construction of a nuclear power plant if you knew that it had no carbon footprint".

I suspected that this was a push poll immediately and asked who the poll was commissioned by. The caller indicated that Cameco was the poll's sponsor. Go figure.

Now, it's worth noting how thoroughly the survey seems to have tried to spin even the UDP's already-biased view of reality in order to try to build support for nuclear power. In addition to making absolutely no comparison to the jobs which would be created by other forms of power generation, the "3000" number in the UDP report relates only to the construction phase of a nuclear power plant. Which is exactly the point where the carbon footprint of a nuclear reactor would be absolutely massive before supposedly averaging downward over the life-span of the plant.

So having apparently concluded that an open debate based on facts doesn't figure to work out in its favour, the pro-nuclear side has apparently turned toward push polling and misleading the public in hopes of ending up at the outcome it wants. Which should offer all the more reason for skepticism anytime the pro-nuke side claims to care in the least about what's best for Saskatchewan.