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(LifeSiteNews) — The polling company behind a survey sent to Albertans last week says it only released the results of its poll showing most respondents favor parental consent for minors to obtain an abortion because of a mainstream media story about mysterious “robocalls” related to the poll.
LifeSiteNews learned that the polling company behind the survey, National Public Research Canada (NPRC), which asked people their opinion on whether parental consent or notification for minors to obtain abortions should be required, is linked to a Calgary, Alberta-based Blue Direct.
The principal of Blue Direct is Richard Dur, who also is the volunteer executive director of Prolife Alberta.
In a statement sent to LifeSiteNews, NPRC confirmed it is indeed one of several names used by Blue Direct.
“National Public Research Canada (NPRC) is one of several registered operating names belonging to Blue Direct, a Calgary-based, conservative-oriented calling house specializing in direct voter contact,” the company told LifeSiteNews.
“Richard Dur, the principal of Blue Direct, also serves as the volunteer Executive Director of Prolife Alberta. Prolife Alberta is a group of women and men committed to promoting pro-life public policy in Alberta through political means.”
According to NPRC, the registered name under which over “6,000 Albertans were surveyed on parental rights in Alberta for minors seeking abortions” stands by the results of “that survey.”
On Monday, LifeSiteNews reported that the survey released by NPRC revealed that 62% of Albertans expressed “some form of parental consent and/or notification for minors seeking abortions.”
However, there was some controversy among pro-abortion activist groups regarding the polling company, NPRC, as web searches do not reveal anything about NPRC online as a polling firm. But there is a phone number associated with the company.
LifeSiteNews spoke with an NPRC representative who identified himself as Peter and said that the polling firm operates as a subsidiary of a voter contact firm, now known as Blue Direct. LifeSiteNews was able to authenticate that the survey was sent to thousands of Albertans and that the results were publicly released due to an earlier CTV report.
“The only reason we released anything to the media was because of the tons of social media interest that (the CTV robocall) story generated,” he said to LifeSiteNews.
“We are a subsidiary of (a voter contact firm) so that’s why you see little about us, so we don’t make public about as to what that is, because we wish to remain independent from our voter contact firm so as to prevent impressions of bias.”
The information noted that NPRC is not “typically intended for public consumption,” and the data it collects is or advising “privately – our clients in government, business, and (non-profit organizations).”
On February 1, CTV News Alberta ran a story with the headline, “Mysterious robocall survey polling Albertans on parental consent for abortions.” In the report were quotes from Albertans who got the call and apparently were angered.
After some on social media falsely claimed NPRC was linked to The Prime Contact Group, LifeSiteNews confirmed with its president, Josh Justice, that the firm has nothing to do with the group.
Justice told LifeSiteNews that from his point of view when it comes to the poll results released from the NPRC, there is something that “seems quite off about the whole situation.”
“There’s no contact information, there’s almost no methodology, that’s not the way a poll is released to the media.”
Justice also questioned whether the NPRC is a “real company.”
On Monday, CTV ran a story with the same poll results LifeSiteNews was sent.
LifeSiteNews obtained a copy of the poll results on February 5, but after the CTV story about it was published.
The phone survey was conducted on February 1 via Interactive Voice Response and elicited 6,047 responses from Albertans who were asked, “Should parental rights include parental consent for a minor child seeking an abortion?” The response rate from the survey was 16.2 percent of all who were called.
Broken down, 52 percent responded that they supported both parental notification and consent, with 10 percent of respondents saying they would want to be notified but consent was not needed. A total of 30 percent did not think parental consent or notification for a minor’s abortion was needed.
Campaign Life Coalition blasts Canadian anti-hate network for claiming it was behind the poll
In a statement to the media yesterday, CLC praised the news of the NPRC poll, with president Jeff Gunnarson saying, “While it’s only common sense that parents be involved in every major medical decision of their child, no parent knowing what an abortion is and how it harms their daughter and destroys the life of their grandchild would consent to such evil.”
“A consent law would make parents aware of the situation so they can act lovingly to protect both their child and grandchild,” he added.
CLC has no connection to Prolife Alberta or the creation of the poll. However, the pro-abortion leaning Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) falsely claimed today in a report that CLC might be involved in the creation of the poll.
CLC director of communications Pete Baklinski issued a statement blasting the pro-abortion leaning CAHN for claiming that CLC was behind the poll after the group ran a story saying “anti-abortion groups Campaign Life Coalition and RightNow” were behind the poll.
“As I already told the Network (CAHN) CLC did not commission this poll and was not involved in creating it in any way. We only learned about it after CTV broke the story about the poll on Feb. 5 (archived version),” Baklinski wrote on X (formerly Twitter) today.
“CLC put out a press release that same day on our website praising the poll. The press release included a link to the PDF of the poll that we received in an email that same day that originated from the polling company National Public Research Canada.”
Baklinski attached an image “of the posting date of the press release” and an “image from the Way Back Machine archive that shows the PDF being picked up by web crawlers the day after we posted it, Feb. 6.”
“I call upon the Network to correct its story and do some better investigation as to the origin of this poll, as recently performed by CTV.”
Baklinski said the CAHN hit piece “deliberately spreads misinformation about the recent Alberta poll on abortion.”
“The Network bizarrely implies that CLC was somehow behind the poll based on loopy Google cache information,” he said.
LifeSiteNews will be reporting more on this evolving story.
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