A second pre-election survey was circulating in Squamish last week, but the group behind it is staying silent on their identity and motives.
Last Wednesday,听 a group called was promoting sponsored Facebook ads asking "Are you proud to live in Squamish?" linked to a short online survey.
Very little information is available on the people behind the group. The linked survey page said Future Prosperity is 鈥渁 community group looking to make Squamish the best place to live in Canada.鈥�
The administrators behind the Facebook page read and ignored Facebook message requests for comment from The Chief.
The website was created on July 15, 2018. As of Monday, ads for the survey were no longer running on Facebook, where the group is designated a 鈥渘onprofit organization.鈥�
The group is similar in name and approach to Future Prosperity for 小蓝视频, a third-party organization that ran attack ads against NDP leader John Horgan in the lead up to last year鈥檚 provincial election.
Future Prosperity for 小蓝视频 ended their activities before the writ dropped, meaning their campaign did not fall under the scrutiny of the Elections Act.
Municipal election campaigning begins on Sept. 22, 2018. After that time, even third-party advertisers for the municipal election must register with Elections 小蓝视频.
The survey page, aimed at adults living in Squamish, linked to a website requesting a full name, email address and postal code. After filling out the information, the survey asked three questions.
The first page asked, 鈥淚s Mayor Patricia Heintzman doing a good job?鈥� and gave the user options to choose 鈥淵es鈥� or 鈥淣o.鈥�
The second question was 鈥淲hat is the best path for Squamish?鈥� and provided two possible answers: 鈥淟ook to create more economic opportunity and development in Squamish鈥� or 鈥淧reserve Squamish as is.鈥�
The final question asked the survey takers to pick their most important issue from the following choices: childcare, wasteful spending, commute outside Squamish for jobs, municipal infrastructure, the environment/climate change, public transit, parking, overcrowding local trails, good paying jobs in Squamish, lack of recreational facilities, housing affordability, municipal planning, property taxes, quality of schools.
The website includes no information about who launched the survey, just that it was 鈥淎uthorized by Future Properity [sic] Squamish.鈥�
The website is hosted by NationBuilder, an online software that allows politicians and nonprofits to build campaign-based websites.
The online survey follows another mysterious polling campaign targeting locals in Squamish by phone in July, by Campaign Research.
The Ontario-based company said it wouldn鈥檛 disclose who had commissioned the survey.
听
***Please note this story has been updated as of Aug. 22, 9:35 a.m.
