Categories: Canada

What's more—and what's less—popular than the Tories and the Liberals

Turns out, the political parties can’t compete with God, frugality and the military

by Philippe Gohier on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 4:25pm - 4 Comments

What's more—and what's less—popular than the Tories and the Liberals According to the latest Angus Reid survey, the Liberals and Conservatives are neck and neck; if an election were held today, the two major parties would each take 33 per cent of the vote, with the NDP coming in a distant third with 15 per cent support and the Greens roughly matching their 2008 election result of six per cent. The Bloc, meanwhile, would take 40 per cent in la belle province.

While neither the Tories or Liberals appear poised to score a Parliamentary majority, they are still more popular than smoking while pregnant and expensive, eco-friendly products. That said, they still have a way to go before they’ve caught up with God and the prospect of eternal life.

Six things that are more popular than the Conservatives and the Liberals:

Frugality: More than 80 per cent of Canadians say they’ve cut back on their spending.

Stimulus spending: 59 per cent of Canadians believe government spending will help Canada’s economy recover.

God: 58 per cent of Canadians say they “definitely believe in God.”

Virginity: 56 per cent of Canadian teens say they’ve never had sex.

Eternal life: 42 per cent of Canadians say that, given the opportunity, they would choose to live forever.

The war in Afghanistan: 40 per cent of Canadians support the military mission.

Six things that are less popular than the Conservatives and the Liberals:

Green products: 29 per cent of Canadian shoppers opt for environmentally-friendly products, even if they’re more expensive than the alternative.

Atheist bus ads: 20 per cent of Canadians want to see a message proclaiming, “There’s probably no God, now stop worrying and enjoy your life” on city buses.

The Canucks’ playoff chances: 18 per cent of Canadians think Vancouver has the best chance of winning the Stanley Cup. (Amazingly, five per cent picked the Leafs.)

Smoking while pregnant: 11 per cent of Canadian women say they lit up during their pregnancy.

Protectionism: 9.7 per cent of Canadians oppose “enhancing the flow of people and goods” across the Canada-U.S. border.

Health care as a top priority: 9.6 per cent of Canadians identify health care as most important issue facing the country.

Tags: canadian politics, conservatives, liberals, Polls

More by Philippe Gohier

Wayne

Leaf fans : they warm my heart they do. PS: teens lie on polls
seathanaich

Um, 58% per cent definitely believe in a god, yet only 42% would chose to live forever. So, 16% of people believe in a story where the prize is immortality, yet they don’t want immortality – and that’s not even counting the people who sort-of believe in a god. No wonder I can’t figure religious people out . . .

And the atheist bus ads. Is 20% who “want to see” them just the number of people who agree with the statement? Because it’s pretty important that the number of people who support free speech, and therefore agree people have the right to run such ads, be much higher than 20%!
brainiac

You can’t read Seathanaich, that’s why you have trouble understanding religous people. The poll asked about living forever, if there is no mention of heaven or the afterlife, most people, including the 58% who believe in God, would think “Life forever on this planet?”

Appropriately, they say no thanks to that. Ask the 58% if they choose to spend eternity in the presence of the Living God or in damnation and you will get a different response. I’m guessing a large majority would choose the former over the latter. Maybe even you. You are always welcome to choose heaven, it’s not too late.

seathanaich

Hello Brainiac:

I was unaware that a loving god existed in any of humanity’s thousands of religions. All the gods I hear about, or see people doing harmful things in the name of, seem to bear a remarkable resemblance to the princes, medicine men, and delusional snake-oil salesmen who invented them, right down to the beards and appropriate cultural clothing. I’m not too impressed with your god Yahweh, having read about his alleged antics in a big book. I guess the only saving grace for him is that he is so obviously fictional.

And I can read just fine. Either you are pretty thick, or you are pretending not to get my point. I’ll assume the latter; so thanks for pretending not to get my point, because you make an assumption that is quite common among religionists, and which is good to correct:

I can’t “choose” the Jewish heaven, or the Muslim one, or the Norse Valhalla, or any other Hall Of My Ancestors that people invented to cope with their fear of death. My disbelief in your particular god is done for exactly the same reasons that you dismiss all the thousands of gods that you don’t believe in (ie, your parents didn’t legitimise them from infancy, and there is no evidence that they are real). I can’t choose to believe in Yahweh any more than you can choose to believe in Thor. I know that Jewish (and therefore Christian and Muslim) dogma insists that atheism is a choice, so it can then justify the persecution of the non-believer (and, more inportantly, prevent apostacy), but non-belief is not something that you can just will yourself to do.

I don’t say this last bit rhetorically or disrespectfullly; I am well aware that the opposite is true, and that a believer in any religion is in the same position. He can’t just “choose” to change his beliefs on the existence of his god or the validity of his religion. That viewpoint may change, of course, but not through active “choice”. Indeed, most people who make such changes, in any direction, resist them at first, which certainly demonstrates that they are anything but a choice.

As for the heaven construct which is common to all religions, the fact that people want it to exist is not enough to will it into being. One thing is for sure: if some cosmic power actually exists, and it actually started granting immortality to humans at some point on our evolution from single-celled organisms, it cannot be the petty despot Yahweh dreamed up by desert nomads 3000 years ago. Any real god would not punish people just for refusing to believe the babble of Paul of Tarsus, and the string of popes and televangelists who have carried on his “work”.