Dear Editor,

For those who still believe pollsters can accurately gauge public opinion in the age of disappearing land lines, call display, and unlisted cell phones, I'd like to remind them of the colossally inaccurate predictions pollsters made in the Alberta provincial election a few months ago.

Based on pollsters predictions, the far-right Wildrose Party was going to win by a landslide - much the same as what the pollsters have been predicting for the NDP in B.C.

However, when the votes were counted on election night, Allison Redford's governing centrist PC party held 61 of 87 seats, while Wildrose only took a paltry 17 seats.

The pollsters were crestfallen and baffled. What happened, they wondered?

Well, what has happened is a fundamental change in technology, and it's leading to severely skewed results for pollsters. How many people still have a land line? And how many people actually pick up that land line when they see that a pollster or telemarketer is calling?

It all goes to show that, more than ever, the only poll that really matters or that has any validity whatsoever is the poll that happens on election day.

And based on pure gut instinct, I predict that few people in B.C. are going to risk handing the provincial economy over to the NDP when the votes are counted on election night next May.

Massimo Mandarino, Vancouver