PHOTO: Burger Poll mid-campaign results
The Lick's poll has been up and running for a while now. I stopped by for lunch today to snap a pic of the numbers today, with slightly less than two weeks remaining in the campaign.
The polls at Lick's on Hurontario, just north of Eglinton, don't match the provincial polls, and, as you can see, they actually have Tory's Tories in the lead by a couple of points.
Keep in mind, it's entirely possible that PC operatives have been lunching there on a regular basis in order to pump up the numbers.
The burger poll was first used to raise awareness of an Oakville municipal election back in the 1970s. It gathered steam after that, with the federal government banning polls, including "Hamburger surveys," during the 1977 federal election.
"Since no one but Lick's was conducting a Burger Poll at the time, Lick's patrons took the ban as the highest possible compliment about their political astuteness," said Denise Meehan, founder of the burger chain.
In case you can't see the photo, it reads:
Progressive Conservatives - 37%
Liberals - 35%
NDP - 16%
Other - 12%
UPDATE - I just spoke to Frank Peruzzi, the Chief Electoral Officer at Licks. He told me the numbers posted at the Licks (in the photo) are province-wide. The current poll numbers for that specific location are as follows:
Libs - 39%
PC - 30%
NDP - 13%
OTHER - 18%
Peruzzi also told me that each of the chain's 25 stores get about 110 ballots cast per day. By the end of the campaign, that means they get roughly 60,000 ballots.
Also, Peruzzi gave me the results from the 2003 election
Liberals
Licks result - 49%
Actual result - 46.5%
Progressive Conservatives
LR - 30%
AR - 34.6%
NDP
LR - 16%
AR - 14.7%