The 1974-1979-1980 Canadian national elections and Quebec referendum panel study

This study is a continuation of the 1974 Canadian Election Study which consisted of extensive personal interviews with a national sample of 2,562 respondents following the federal election of July 8, 1974. Immediately following the federal election of May 22, 1979, 1,295 of the original respondents were successfully contacted and interviewed, thereby creating a 1974-1979 panel study. In addition, a new national sample of the l979 electorate and a supplementary sample of young voters (age 18-23) were drawn and personal interviews utilizing the same questionnaire were conducted with respondents in these samples. After the federal election of February 18, 1980, 1,748 respondents in both the panel and cross-section samples were contacted by telephone and reinterviewed. No new respondents were added to the 1980 sample. When the Quebec referendum was called for May 20, 1980, a decision was made to again contact by telephone Quebec respondents originally sampled in l974 or 1979 and interviewed in 1980. 325 of these respondents were successfully contacted and reinterviewed, approximately half of the interviews were conducted immediately prior to the referendum, and the remaining half immediately afterward. The 1974 post election survey covered a wide range of areas involving citizen participation in politics.