Survey didn’t add up to the majority

This is the problem I have with some letters you choose to publish. In a recent edition, one author asserts: “The residents of Hamilton have democratically spoken — 90 per cent petitioned to preserve our non-renewable farmland.” This is patently false. Only 18,000 people responded to the survey. Hamilton has a population of over 550,000. In reality, approximately three per cent of Hamiltonians petitioned, not 90 per cent. One cannot extrapolate similar results over the entire population.

The irony here is I too feel we should focus on intensification within our current boundaries but I think the least our newspaper can do is attempt to print the truth. Letters that distort only serve to confuse these important issues.

David Borsellino, Hamilton