Unethical pollster Frank Graves must be fired

Frank Graves is the president of a polling company called Ekos Research.

Graves is a partisan Liberal, having personally donated more than $11,000 to that party over the past decade.

But it has paid off handsomely for Graves. When the Liberals were last in power, they steered more than $61 million in government contracts to Ekos -- literally 1,600 contracts.

For every dollar Graves gave the Liberals, they gave $6,000 to his company.

That would probably be enough to make me a Liberal, too.

And by the way, there's nothing wrong with being a Liberal partisan (although, of course, there was something terribly wrong with the way the Liberals handed out their public opinion contracts under the Liberals -- it was positively criminal, in fact.)

But the Liberals aren't in power any more and their bureaucrat who doled out the polling contracts, Chuck Guite, went to jail. I'd bet that Ekos's government contracts have fallen precipitously.

So Graves keeps busy by, amongst other things, being CBC's pollster of record.

I guess the CBC is where left-wingers go for a soft landing when they're down on their luck. I mean, they actually gave a whole show to radical environmental lobbyist David Suzuki.

So we've got another Liberal working at the CBC -- that's hardly news. But today the Globe and Mail's Lawrence Martin carried a stunning interview with Graves, about his continuing role as an advisor to the Liberal Party. Here's an excerpt:

In his advice, Mr. Graves could hardly have been more blunt. “I told them that they should invoke a culture war. Cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, secularism versus moralism, Obama versus Palin, tolerance versus racism and homophobia, democracy versus autocracy. If the cranky old men in Alberta don’t like it, too bad. Go south and vote for Palin.”

Let's take this one step at a time.

The CBC's pollster of record is major Liberal donor. He plots out strategies to beat the Conservatives. And he gives that strategic advice to the Liberals in private -- a fact that we only learn about because he blabbed about it to Martin.

Yet Graves appears on the CBC not as a "Liberal pollster" or "Liberal strategist" or "Liberal donor" or "Liberal", but as the CBC's trustworthy, neutral, reliable, independent analyst, who cares only about enlightening viewers.

What a scandal.

Could you imagine if the CBC were to hire a Tory strategist as their chief Parliamentary correspondent -- while secretly allowing him to continue to work for the Conservatives, and donate thousands upon thousands of dollars to them?

It's too absurd to even ask the question.

I mean, the media positively had a freak-out when it was revealed that a CBC reporter who is dating a Tory MP was given spousal travel benefits.

Graves's case would be like the Tory MP himself working for the CBC -- and not disclosing it.

I say again, it is fine for partisan hacks to be on TV. But it's not fine when their hackery is kept secret from the viewers.

Don't take my word for it -- take a page out of the CBC's own code of ethics.

Here's a paragraph from their rulebook regarding political partisans:

The hiring of persons identified with political parties or pressure groups may only be authorized if the person concerned has resigned his or her functions within the political party or pressure group and has refrained from public activity in the party or group or in a related capacity for at least two years.

This policy is not designed to prevent the participation of public figures invited to comment on current events provided that, on the air, there is no ambiguity regarding their status.

So Frank Graves can continue to be a top Liberal -- a top donor, a top strategist, a top advisor -- as long as he doesn't hide that from viewers. But he does hide it -- his partisan links are not disclosed.

That's unethical.

But you'll notice, dear reader, that I haven't even yet discussed the substance of Graves' advice to his boss.

And by boss, of course, I don't mean the CBC, I mean Michael Ignatieff.

Just what did the CBC's "neutral" pollster tell Ignatieff to do?

He told Ignatieff to pit Canadians against each other.

Region against region, class against class, province against province, race against race, and even sexual orientation against sexual orientation.

He actually called it a "war" amongst Canadians. As in, Ignatieff should try to start one.

It's insane advice: a strategy of attacking national unity, instead of building it.

Treating some Canadians with respect but others with contempt.

Provoking dischord and sowing seeds of dissent, for raw political gain.

My, how the Liberal Party has fallen.

This was once the party that owned the brand of national unity and national pride. It was the party of the flag, the party of section 15 of the Charter -- the equality provision. Now it's the party of dividing Canadians to conquer them.

And the horrific thing is that Michael Ignatieff has clearly been listening to his man in the CBC.

Just look at Ignatieff's two signature issues over the past few months: forcing abortion onto the national agenda; and vowing to enforce the gun registry over the objections of rural Canadians.

He's doing it. Ignatieff is actually implementing the Graves Strategy: divide Canadians against each other, to conquer them politically.

It's the kind of machination that must appeal to a Russian Count.

The CBC must fire Graves: he cannot be their "neutral" pollster of record. He should be invited on every week as a Liberal strategist -- he clearly has great influence in the party. But he cannot continue to pretend to CBC viewers that he is non-partisan. It's not only dishonest, it's against the CBC's rules.

But Ignatieff must fire Graves, too. He must renounce the Graves Strategy of scorched earth. He must publicly distance himself from the idea of a national enemies list, with whole provinces and religions and races on it.

It's one thing for Graves to hold such cynical, corrosive views. At the end of the day, he's just a talking head.

But it's quite something else for the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition to be guided by such a mean-spirited, bitter strategy.

Let Frank Graves continue to make his five-figure Liberal donations. Good for him.

But the CBC must fire him -- their code of ethics demands it.

And Michael Ignatieff must renounce his advice -- his civic responsibility to Canadians requires it.

Update: Kory Teneycke slaughters a sweaty, shifty, no-eye-contact Graves on the CBC. That's a good start. But will the CBC continue to keep this partisan as their "neutral" pollster?

Favourite lines from the video:

Graves said "I'm entitled" to give secret strategic advice to the Liberal Party if he damned well pleases. So far, the CBC brass seem to agree with him, code of ethics be damned.

Teneycke keeps reading Graves' words back to him, and finally the Liberal panics and says "I haven't presented this to Michael Ignatieff or the Liberals". Is he calling Lawrence Martin a liar? Or is he saying that he himself lied when he told Martin that he had presented his strategic advice to the Liberals?

What a professional meltdown.

But again, who cares about Graves? It's the CBC's reputation that is being murdered -- and Michael Ignatieff's judgement that is now under scrutiny.