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The NDP won the riding by a comfortable margin, 42 per cent of the vote to Roberts’ 33 per cent.

There were two problems with the poll, according to the agreement, and both were well understood by senior Green officials before the flyers were handed out.

First, the polling data purchased by the Greens had a small sample size and therefore a high margin of error, around plus or minus 10 percentage points. In other words, the Green support could have been as low as 25 per cent and the NDP’s as high as 46 per cent.

“According to the polling firm, reliable data intended for public dissemination would have required purchasing a more expensive polling services package,” according to the statement.

A few days before the polling firm began contacting residents, Green executive director Emily McMillan and her deputy director received an Elections Canada advisory via email “reminding opinion poll sponsors and distributors of the mandatory information to be included with published election survey results,” according to the compliance agreement.

That information includes details on sample size, margin of error, and dates for when respondents were surveyed.

“Neither of them read the contents of the Elections Canada advisory, nor did they pass it on to other party workers.”

The polling information, distributed to the Victoria households the day before residents went to the polls on Oct. 19, came after an internal debate on the matter.