LAKELAND - A team of political scientists from the University of Alberta ran paid focus groups in St. Paul on July 9 as part of ongoing research about what life is like for the typical Albertan.
According to Dr. Jared Wesley, the lead researcher for Common Ground, there is “remarkable consistency” in the themes which come up in the discussions, no matter where in the province they are.
“We could be in a room full of women, which we've done, or a room full of men. We could be in a room in Fort McMurray, or a room in Edmonton. And the same kinds of themes keep coming up, which suggests that the typical Albertan, or at least our image of what the typical Albertan thinks and does and says, is pretty common across the entire province,” said Wesley.
He wouldn’t disclose what exactly the focus groups will be discussing when they meet, because they “don’t like to prime our participants to think about things before they get in the room.”
Wesley said the purpose of the focus groups is to find out what people think other people think about topics.
His team does an Alberta-wide survey twice a year to gather individual opinions about issues of the day like Alberta’s place in confederation or matters of public policy. They then combine the individual surveys with the results from the focus groups to get a better understanding of public opinion and political culture in Alberta.
“People aren't only motivated by their own personal opinions. They're also motivated when it comes to the way they vote, when it comes to the issues that they talk about publicly,” said Wesley.
He gave the example of NDP supporters. Election data shows they do exist in St. Paul and in South Calgary, “but a lot of those folks would probably not put up an NDP sign or show up to a rally in favour of a progressive issue, not for fear but out of the sense that they would be seen as being outside of the mainstream of their communities … and the same thing would be true of conservatives in downtown Edmonton, they might not feel confident or comfortable expressing those attitudes.”
Wesley and his team try to pick communities of different sizes, geographic locations, and demographics. The last time his team came to St. Paul was in 2019, when it was selected because it is a small town in the northeastern part of the province and has a different industrial base than Hanna, a smaller town in the south.
Participants are paid $75 for the 90-minute session.
“We pay you for your time because your time is important and valuable, but people walk away having had a good time and having learned something about their community, a few even learn something about themselves, and that's really what our academic team was put together in the first place, is to help Albertans understand more about themselves and their communities,” said Wesley.
