Polimeter

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Lead researcher - Opérations and partners - Lisa Birch, Affiliated Professor

Lead researcher - Developmment - Yannick Dufresne, Associate Professor

Dedication

We dedicate our new infrastructure to the memory of François Pétry (1948 -2020) Emeritus professor of political science, Laval University, for his passion, his rigor and his vision for the Polimeter.

A question—Do politicians keep their promises?

A mission—The Polimeter measures election pledge fulfillment by governments over the course of their mandate. The Polimeter’s mission is to provide citizens, the media and researchers with objective, transparent and reliable political information about government actions, inactions and promised results over the course of a mandate.

A research teamEach Polimeter is produced by a team of experienced university researchers and trained research assistants.

A web platformIn 2020, Vox Pop Labs created the innovative new platform by enhancing that of Covosoft Corporation, whose pledge tracking tool has been integrated with the Polimeter.

A rigorous methodology—The Université Laval's Centre for Public Policy Analysis (CAPP) developed the Polimeter’s methodology to extract promises from election platforms, conduct research to document government action related to promises, assess the level of promise fulfillment, update verdicts in real time in a reliable way, and render them available online directly along with our methodology.

Our analysis of the different levels of pledge fulfillment and our rules for classifying promises by level of fulfillment are based on the method elaborated by the Comparative Party Pledge Project (CPPP), a consortium of international researchers who are interested in the comparative study of election promise fulfillment and who have published numerous scientific articles and books on this subject. 

A registered trademark—Polimeter is a polyvalent name that combines Poli (for politics or public policy) and meter (for neutral and independent measurement).

A little history—In 2013, inspired by similar tools that existed in the United States (Obamameter) and in France (Lui Président), CAPP researchers led by François Pétry and Lisa Birch, created this tool to measure the fulfillment of election promises.

It is unique among pledge tracking tools for its rigorous, transparent methodology and its advanced infrastructure.

Since 2013, the Polimeter team has analysed pledge fulfillment by governments in Canada (Harper III Polimeter and Trudeau Polimeters I and II Trudeau) and in Quebec (Polimeter Marois, Polimeter Couillard and Polimeter  Legault). In 2019, researchers developed the Polimeter Higgs in New Brunswick thanks to a partnership between the Donald J. Savoie Institute (IDJS) and the CAPP. In 2020, the partnership with Vox Pop Labs and McMaster University's Digital Society Lab led to the first Ontario Polimeter for Doug Ford and to the new web infrastructure.

Independent funding—Since its creation, the operations and development of the Polimeter have been supported directly by the CAPP through a research grant from the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture and through the dedication of CAPP researchers. Recently, the Polimeter received punctual support from the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship (McGill University) and from the Political Science Department at Université Laval. The first Polimetre Higgs was funded by the Secrétariat du Québec aux relations canadiennes, the IDJS and the CAPP. The first Ontario Polimeter was supported by the Secrétariat du Québec aux relations canadiennes, Vox Pop Labs and the CAPP. 

The Donald J. Savoie Institute now supports the development of Polimeters in Atlantic Canada.

Explore the Polimeter at https://www.polimetre.org/en

For more information about the Polimeter or to join our team, write to polimetre@capp.ulaval.ca