COMMENTARY: How to make sense of the opinion pollsduring the 2025 Canadian election – National [Video]

Opinion polls play a central role in every election campaign.

They give us a glimpse into the mindset of Canadian voters and how they react to the campaign.

While polls capture sentiment on a wide variety of questions, most people (including the media) focus on the “horse race” question to answer who’s winning in popular support, and to project who’s likely to win on election day.

Caution must be used when interpreting opinion polls. They’re not all created equal. Dismissing them outright is as foolish as trusting them blindly.

But with healthy scrutiny, they can be a useful source of information for voters who are weighing their options: whether to vote strategically, support the underdog or jump on the bandwagon.

So here’s what you need to know to make sense of polls in this election campaign.

A poll is a snapshot in time and is not necessarily predictive of future behaviour.

Polls that are in the field (surveying Canadians) for …