Politics·PODCAST

The Pollcast: Polling Muslim Canadians

Keith Neuman, executive director of the Environics Institute, joins host Eric Grenier to discuss the challenges — and importance — of polling minorities in Canada.

Host Éric Grenier is joined by Keith Neuman of the Environics Institute

Including minority populations when conducting national surveys is an important part of accurately reflecting public opinion. Eric Grenier and Keith Neuman, executive director of the Environics Institute, discuss the challenges of reaching Muslim Canadians and other communities, in this week's Pollcast podcast. (Tanya Birkbeck/CBC)

The CBC Pollcast, hosted by CBC poll analyst and ThreeHundredEight.com founder Éric Grenier, explores the world of political polls and the trends they show.

Joining Éric on today's podcast is Keith Neuman, the executive director of the Environics Institute, to discuss the challenges and value of polling minorities in Canada.

"Surveys are great at tapping the broad public opinion and understanding not only political issues but policy issues and social trends," says Keith Neuman. "But there are often important groups within the population that may not either be properly included in the survey or in numbers large enough to really provide analysis. So they fall between the cracks."

The Environics Institute is conducting a survey of Muslim Canadians as a follow-up to its landmark 2006 study.

You can listen to the full discussion below, or subscribe to The CBC Pollcast and listen to past episodes here.

You can also follow the Environics Institute on Twitter.