Some of you may have received a call from my office a few weeks ago. Someone on the other end was calling to ask your opinion (your vote in this case) on a variety of issues. Same-sex marriage, violent crime and legalization of marijuana were some of the topics that were covered in this survey. (Ten thousand of you responded: I basically treated it like a mini-referendum.)

Why did we conduct such an extensive telephone survey? Well, in my case, finding out what your opinion is on a particular issue is a big part of my job. As an MP, I do my best to represent your priorities in Ottawa. To measure your support on a certain issue, we use a variety of different means.

First of all, I almost always have a reply form on my mailings to get people’s views. Generally, I ask questions. But I always appreciate the extra comments and suggestions that I receive. This gives me a good idea of which issues my constituents are passionate about, because people in the riding who are particularly interested in a specific issue are usually the first to respond.

Another technique my office has used to measure support for specific policies (for example, longer sentences for violent criminals) is the randomized telephone survey. The phone survey we conducted earlier this year was so large (10,000 residents of Saskatoon-Humboldt participated) that we probably won’t undertake a survey of that size again for some time. We telephoned over 10,000 residents in order to get an even distribution of views. The return of mail-in response cards varies. Large surveys represent the widest cross-section of views in the constituency, in contrast.

Personally, I think the best way to find out what people are thinking is to just get out and talk to people. For example, I have coffee house tours (which are rather formal). Sometimes, I door knock. More often than not, I just walk down main street to get people’s views. Between the barbershop and coffee row I find that there is quite a bit of wisdom out there. I’m always looking for better ideas, so give me a call or drop me a line.

I’m Brad Trost, your Member of Parliament, and I welcome your feedback. Write or call my offices