The CBC Shows its' true colours again. And guess what? They're red!

By BRIAN LILLEY, PARLIAMENTARY BUREAU

OTTAWA - CBC is not taking any blame for claims that its online voter tool is rigged in favour of the Liberals.

The state broadcaster has partnered with a group of political scientists, mostly from the University of Toronto, to develop an online tool that tells voters which party their views are closest to. Despite claims the tool is rigged, CBC is standing by the online application and continuing to push the public to use it.

In an e-mail message, a spokesman for CBC told QMI Agency that the state broadcaster had no role in the methodology behind the quiz. The academics behind Vote Compass maintain it is an accurate and that "the empirical evidence" doesn't support the claim of bias.

"Sure, if you want to game the tool you can answer questions in such a way that you will end up in the centre of the political landscape, and since - among the 30 statements included in Vote Compass - the Liberal Party is closest to the centre, you will appear closest to the Liberal Party," said Clifton van der Linden, the PhD candidate running Vote Compass.

Some well-known Conservatives, though, say the test is pegging them as Liberals. Guy Giorno, the Conservative campaign chairman and former chief of staff to Prime Minister Harper announced his Liberal leanings on Twitter.

"Even I took Vote Compass test and got Liberal," Giorno tweeted.

While Vote Compass puts the Liberals in the centre, it puts the Conservatives in the bottom right quadrant of their political graph, painting the party as both social and fiscal conservatives. University of Calgary political science professor Barry Cooper said that's not where the Conservatives belong.

"They are extremely centrist," said Cooper. "They are about as centrist as you can get."

Cooper points to the Harper government's deficit spending and lack of movement on social issues to show that they are not overly fiscally or socially conservative.

"About the only thing that the Harper government has done that would be unequivocally supported by small-c conservatives is supported the Canadian military," said Cooper.

The complaints about Vote Compass don't just come from the Conservatives.

The left-wing, mostly NDP supporting, website Rabble.ca has been complaining about problems with the Vote Compass for days. A headline on the site calls the online tool, "miscalibrated." Several comments on the website claim that users selected answers consistent with NDP positions and were told they were closest to the Green Party.

"It's great to see new initiatives that help get Canadians thinking about issues and politics," said NDP campaign spokesperson Kathleen Monk. "That being said, there does seem to be some problems. I mean, when Guy Giorno comes out as a Liberal, you have to think something has gone seriously wrong with your computer."

"New Democrats have been watching the Liberals on every side of every issue for years, so I can see why the program is a bit confused."

By BRIAN LILLEY, PARLIAMENTARY BUREAU

OTTAWA - The CBC keeps things in the family.

The state broadcaster built an online voting tool that's under fire for having a Liberal bias.

And it turns out one of the key people behind CBC's Vote Compass worked as a policy advisor on Michael Ignatieff's Liberal leadership campaign in 2006.

Peter Loewen, assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto, is also the director of analytics for the CBC's online vote selection tool. Vote Compass, a 30 question online tool, is supposed to give voters an idea of what party they are most closely aligned. Critics say it's biased towards the Liberals.

"I volunteered in 2006," Loewen says of his work for Ignatieff's first failed bid for the Liberal leadership. "The nature of that work was that I wrote a couple of policy papers on equalization."

Loewen denies that his work then has any bearing on the outcome of the Vote Compass now or that the vote picking tool leans to the party he once worked with. Critics from the left and the right have claimed the Vote Compass is flawed.

Professor Kathy Brock of Queen's University told QMI Agency on Tuesday that the CBC's web program gives users a default position of Liberal. NDP critics have said it points their voters to the Liberals or Greens.

Loewen dismisses Brock's criticism but refused to say whether those using the tool were showing up Liberal in greater numbers.

"We don't have a representative sample," Loewen said, "They come to us through the CBC website."

CBC has been pushing the voter selection guide on its main network and its all-news channel. In one video promotion, show host George Stroumboulopoulous tells viewers to take the test, "In about five minutes you will know who represents you the best. You might actually be surprised."

Some participants are very surprised, mostly to find out they are Liberal.

On Wednesday, CBC responded to the criticism by airing a report that showed students filling out the questionnaire. One student who said she thought of herself as more Conservative came up as a Liberal, another who thought he was more of an NDP supporter also came out Liberal.

Loewen told QMI Agency he had no role in the placement of the parties in the standings or that he is politically biased, noting that he once bought a $100 ticket to a Stephen Harper fundraiser.

"I'm a political scientist, I study elections, I study how people vote," Loewen said.

CBC has defended the Vote Compass. A spokesperson for the CBC said they had nothing to do with the methodology.