Survey says: Albertans still use tanning beds and Quebec is ready to ban hockey fights
By Manisha Krishnan - Saturday, March 23, 2013 - 0 Comments
A snapshot of surveys and polls across the country
British Columbia: Vancouverites have more faith in Google than just about anything else. A “trust report” by Concerto Marketing Group listed 30 “items,” including politicians, police and corporations; residents placed Google, Apple and Microsoft at the top of their lists. While 81 per cent trust Google, just 67 per cent feel the same way about the Vancouver Police Department. A mere 36 per cent have confidence in Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Alberta: Albertans may endure long winters, but that’s not going to stop them from getting a tan. One-quarter of people aged 18-24 have used an indoor tanning bed in the past 12 months, according to an Ipsos Reid survey on behalf of Alberta Health Services. The results were pretty even between the two sexes, with 28 per cent of men and 26 per cent of women admitting to the practice.
Ontario: New Ipsos Reid data has found that the construction of a casino in Toronto would be embraced by the public. If a vote were held tomorrow, 52 per cent of Torontonians would be in favour of building a casino while 42 per cent would be opposed. Those most receptive to the idea are from the suburbs of North York and Etobicoke, while the majority of resistance comes from East York and downtown Toronto.
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Are Canadians in conflict about abortion? Or merely conflicted?
By Charlie Gillis - Friday, November 16, 2012 at 3:29 PM - 0 Comments
Understanding polls on the volatile issue is harder than getting Parliament to talk about it
My colleague Aaron Wherry points out a revealing Forum poll that suggests a hard swing in Canadian public opinion against legal restrictions on abortion.
True that, and the accompanying Post story references a contradiction I saw in polls when writing my own recent piece on fetal rights. A clear majority of respondents will say they favour unrestricted access to abortion; yet the same poll will show majority support (especially among women) for some kind of regulation or oversight during the third trimester of pregnancy.
Example: last summer Postmedia published an Ipsos Reid poll in which more people (49 per cent) said abortion should be permitted “whenever a woman decides she wants one” than said it should be permitted “in certain circumstances” (45 per cent).
Yet the same poll had a 60-per cent majority in favour of “a law that places limits on when a woman can have an abortion during her pregnancy, such as during the last trimester.”
This sort of contradiction arises all the time in polling, flummoxing surveyors and reporters alike (which result deserves emphasis?). Personally, I’ve begun to wonder whether, when asked a simple question about if a woman’s access to safe abortion should be in any way restricted, most respondents imagine a woman in the early stages of pregnancy and answer with an emphatic ‘no.’
Then, when asked about a fetus in the late stages of development, a sizable number admit to qualms, tipping the result in the other way. Some pollsters randomize their question order to avoid this type of outcome. But it’s not always possible to do in a way that provides coherent results.
That said, the new poll clearly suggests the public is re-engaged on abortion, and reacting negatively to the idea of restrictions. Woodworth’s motion—and the frighteningly vapid remarks of some U.S. political candidates—seem like pretty good explanations for the turnabout.
Take a poll now, in the wake of the news out of Ireland, and it says here you’d get an even stronger response.
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Canada’s place in the world? There’s very little we agree on
By Ken MacQueen - Monday, March 19, 2012 at 12:29 PM - 0 Comments
A new poll funded by the Donner Foundation finds Canadians have increasingly polarized views on world affairs
Baz Ratner/Reuters
America’s best days are behind it; the future belongs to China and India. On that Canadians can agree, but not much else. An assessment of Canadians’ world view finds a country riven by fault lines of politics, ideology, education and age. We can’t agree whether our foreign and environmental policies leave us embarrassed or proud, or whether the country is headed for salvation or perdition. We’ve put fears of terrorism behind us, but we can’t agree which threat takes its place. “On issues of international relations, foreign policy and our place in the world, we really have two different Canadas here now,” says Frank Graves, president of EKOS Research Associates, which surveyed 2001 Canadians between March 6 and 11. “We don’t seem to have the same level of unanimity or consensus that would have existed a decade ago, when Canadians were relatively common-minded, thinking, ‘Okay, we’re good guys, everyone likes us out there.’ ”
The poll, Rethinking Canada’s Place in the World, was financed by the Donner Foundation. The full results will be released March 20 at the Walter Gordon symposium on public policy, organized by graduate students at Massey College and the School of Public Policy and Government at the University of Toronto. The symposium’s theme is multilateralism and global governance, and in these areas the poll discovered a profound loss of faith. Just 14 per cent had confidence in the International Monetary Fund, and only one in four were confident in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Most telling are hardening views on the United Nations, where blue-helmeted peacekeepers were long a source of national pride. While 49 per cent of Canadians called the UN “the best current option available for ensuring world peace and security,” 39 per cent agreed it was a “toothless” institution with little relevance to global security. Yet in a 2003 poll, three-quarters held the UN in high regard. “Canadians have always been big fans of the UN and of multilateralism in general,” said Graves.“Very little of that seems to have survived the last decade.”
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Canadians don't support key Tory policies: poll
By macleans.ca - Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at 3:56 PM - 38 Comments
Majority of Canadians opposed to corporate tax cuts and fighter jet purchase
A new poll conducted for CBC by Environics concludes that Canadians don’t support key Conservative policies, including corporate tax cuts and the F-35 joint strike fighter jet purchase. 53 per cent of Canadians said they don’t support cutting the corporate tax rate to 15 per cent, and 52 per cent said Canada should not purchase F-35 fighter jets. Of the policies that resonate with Canadians, Senate reform had the most support: 65 per cent of those polled agreed on putting an eight-year limit on Senate appointments.
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Quebec and Alberta: best buds?
By Erica Alini - Friday, April 29, 2011 at 8:00 AM - 0 Comments
Contrary to popular belief, most Quebecers don’t hate Albertans
Atlantic Canada: Only 10 per cent of people from Eastern Canada are airing their political opinions online during the current campaign, compared to 18 per cent across Canada. But when they do log on to voice their opinions, they’re the most likely of any Canadians to do so every day.
Quebec: Contrary to popular belief, most Quebecers don’t hate Albertans. Sixty-one per cent said they have a positive view of Alberta, and—even more surprising—71 per cent said the western province should continue to develop its oil sands, provided it does everything possible to limit any environmental impact.
Ontario: While the disaster in Japan shook many Canadians of their confidence in nuclear energy, just 41 per cent in Ontario—the lowest rate of any province—said the disaster worsened their view of nuclear power (the national average is 49 per cent). And 30 per cent of Ontarians continue to support building new nuclear power plants (just 12 per cent in Quebec feel the same way).
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BTC: Imaginary government
By Aaron Wherry - Thursday, August 7, 2008 at 12:00 AM - 0 Comments
From the Globe’s Andre Picard in Mexico City.
Ottawa is determined to shut down Vancouver’s safe-injection site because it’s necessary to “draw a line” about which public health measures are acceptable, Canada’s Health Minister says.
Tony Clement said that while the government supports needle exchanges as a legitimate intervention, providing a site to facilitate the injection of illegal drugs is going too far. He also invoked the slippery-slope argument.
“There are already people saying injection sites aren’t enough, that true harm reduction is giving out heroin for free,” the minister said.
“You have to draw the line somewhere and we feel we’re drawing the line in a place Canadians are comfortable,” Mr. Clement said in an interview in Mexico City, where he is attending the17th International AIDS Conference.
It is surely a shame to see Tony Clement whizzing away whatever claim to credibility he once had. In Steve Paikin’s The Life, Tony is lavishly hailed as a deep thinker and a “Boy Scout” to boot. And he makes great effort in the House to seem reasonable. But here he is now, saying things that aren’t just demonstrably untrue, but so easily refuted. Continue…
