Article content

Canada’s largest newspaper chain says it has placed its relationship with Mainstreet Research on hold after the pollster failed to predict Monday’s civic election and took aim at critics who raised red flags about its surveys.

Postmedia, the company that owns the Calgary Herald and Calgary Sun, has been publishing Mainstreet polls in Alberta for about three years.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Postmedia's relationship with Mainstreet pollster on hold Back to video

During the recent civic election campaign in Calgary, Mainstreet produced several polls suggesting Mayor Naheed Nenshi was trailing conservative challenger Bill Smith by wide margins.

Pundits identified what they considered red flags in the polling data, including an early October survey that indicated young voters, who traditionally support Nenshi, were getting behind Smith.

Mainstreet routinely defended its polls and shot back at critics, at one point calling criticisms from political scientists “quite shocking” and vowing to start “singling people out” for what they said.