Focus our study

Hi guys,

I agree we should narrow the topic of defense policy to a few smaller areas, however, in concern with issues such as Afghanistan, I don't really know if we should specifically focus in this.. The war in Afghanistan is a topic that is being analyzed in hindsight has had a chance to accumulate a lot of media and popular attention that has created certain biases and opinions that could influence the results. For example, some people may answer questions about Canada's role in this war based on what has been said in the media, or by peers etc...

Essentially we need to look at our goals for the survey. We want to find results that are more likely to be repeated in other cases, and results that will help us analyze and develop Canada's defense policy in general. We can throw in a question about Afghanistan, but I feel this area is too emotionally charged to yield results about overall defense attitudes.

I like some of the broader suggestions for questions - they are more general and applicable to a range of cases. John's earlier question of comparing whether people are more willing to spend money on border defense or peacekeeping operations was interesting.