Inside Politics

Canada Economic Action! Plan Flashback: Stimulating the hard-hit . . . political polling sector?

by Kady O'Malley Posted: October 3, 2011 4:28 PM Last Updated: July 31, 2012 4:27 PM
(Note: This post has been updated)

Pop quiz: What is, as far as I can tell, the only political polling firm to qualify for stimulus funding under Canada's Economic Action! Plan? 

Step forward, Holinshed Research Group, the Ottawa-based firm that is likely better known, if at all, as the complainant behind that now-settled small claims lawsuit against erstwhile Ontario PC leadership candidate Randy Hillier. 

Back in 2009, at the very same time that Holinshed was entangled in what appear to have been increasingly acrimonious contract negotiations with the Hillier campaign, it received $125,000 from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario -- a non-repayable loan to develop a sophisticated get-out-the-vote mapping application that was specifically designed to help local candidates win elections.

According to a press release issued by Holinshed president Frank Hall in response to this post, the funding came from the National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program, which, the press release points out, "many qualified companies receive after applying and undergoing a scientific audit and financial review" as was "also the case with Holinshed Research Group."

According to the Holinshed Research Group website, Geovote "is a focused, customized, web based, interactive data management and display mapping system ... used successfully in municipal, provincial and federal elections since 2003."

Holinshed Research Group has strong ties to both the federal and provincial Conservative Parties. Not only did co-founder Frank Hall serve as Atlantic policy advisor to then-opposition leader Preston Manning, but he even carried the Canadian Alliance banner in a Newfoundland byelection in 2000.  

According to a corporate profile that appeared in the Newfoundland-based Business Post in 2008, later that same year, Hall employed what turned out to be the forerunner of Geovote to elect one of just two Canadian Alliance MPs to win in Ontario: Scott Reid, Randy Hillier's federal seatmate and longtime friend and supporter.

The Post also reports that "Holinshed provided services to candidates in 16 ridings" during the 2008 federal election, as well as 14 candidates in the 2007 Ontario provincial election. 

Sadly, the website does not identify any of those past clients by name, although it does include links to both the Ontario legislature and the House of Commons. We'll just have to wait for the candidate expense filings to find out if any recent federal or provincial campaigners benefited indirectly from that stimulus funding.

A search of candidate returns reveals that 11 federal candidates -- all Conservative -- listed Holinshed as a supplier during the 2008 election. (Expenses handled through the local riding association do not show up in the online database, which may explain the discrepancy between the claimed 16 clients and the available record.) That marked a significant increase from the previous electoral go-round, when just three candidates claimed Holinshed as an expense: Conservatives Gord Brown and Scott Reid, and Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj.

Hall states in the Holinshed press release that neither he nor Holinshed Research Group is associated with any political party.


Corrections and Clarifications
July 31, 2012

This post has been edited from a previous version to include Holinshed's statement that the grant to develop its Geovote software originated with the National Research Council's IRAP program and to add more details about candidates who have hired Holinshed in past election campaigns.

Tags: blackberry jungle, it's a small world (federal/provincial conservative edition), #voteon