New poll reveals that the public maintains trust in elected representatives, but also endorses grassroots citizen action to define what is best for the country
Research precedes the 9th annual Trudeau Foundation Conference in Edmonton, 22-24 November
MONTREAL, Nov. 21, 2012 /CNW Telbec/ - A new exclusive poll commissioned by the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation in collaboration with the University of Alberta in Edmonton and conducted by the Environics Institute sheds new light on the priorities on which Canadians expect their governments to focus. While almost all Canadians agree on the importance of a few fundamental values - gender equality, a political system responsive to citizen voices, public health care, and respect for all religions - this is much less apt to be the case on many of the issues in today's headlines: welcoming immigrants, maintaining a strong military, reducing income inequality, and keeping taxes low. On reconciling differences on important issues facing the country, Canadians believe their governments are doing a good job at least some of the time. At the same time, Canadians support citizen initiatives that are lawful and take place within an institutional context. From the Occupy Movement to the BC HST referendum and the student protests in Quebec, the poll comes at a time when people are asking who really decides the common good and how.
These poll results will serve as the backdrop of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation's 9th annual conference on public policy in Edmonton, Alberta, on 22-24 November. The survey and the conference analyze the grand principles around which Canadians are brought together and they provide insight for public policy-making. The data show that while some of these principles are unshakable, others are less consensual.
"In recent public debates over major controversies involving the economy, the environment, and human rights, the spirit of compromise seems to have given way to increasingly entrenched ideological positions," said Dr. Pierre-Gerlier Forest, President of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation. "However, it is comforting to see that Canadians still trust their public authorities to make choices for the public good, and that when they feel their government is not paying proper attention, they approve of citizens taking grassroots actions. This is reassuring about Canada's democratic future."
The survey shows that relatively few Canadians (18%) strongly agree that there is a shared set of common values and priorities about what is best for the country, or can easily identify what those values and priorities are. When defining the common good at the provincial level, a clear sense of shared values is more evident among those living in Alberta (42%), Atlantic Canada (36%), Saskatchewan (33%) and Quebec (28%).
Of twelve values describing the type of country respondents think Canada should be, there is broad consensus that four values are part of the common good: treating women and men equally in all walks of life (92% strongly agree), a political system that encourages citizens to let politicians know what they think (76% strongly agree), respect for all religions (67% strongly agree), and publicly funded health care (66% strongly agree; 82% of Torontonians strongly agree). Most Canadians find these values important for the country, and believe that most of their fellow citizens share their view.
Canadians also tend to place importance on four other values, but surprisingly, Canadians doubt that their fellow Canadians find those values as important as they do: strict laws on crime to keep criminals off the streets (59% strongly agree; 69% of Atlantic Canadians), a social safety net that helps everyone in need (51% strongly agree), speaking or respecting both English and French (51% strongly agree; 62% of Atlantic Canadians), and protecting the environment even if doing so limits economic development (49% strongly agree). In the cases of environmental protection and respect for English and French, Canadians are much more likely to think that the public is more divided than it really is.
A much smaller proportion of Canadians strongly agree - and as many or more disagree - on fully welcoming immigrants from all over the world (29% strongly agree; 83% overall agreement in British Columbia), maintaining strong military (27%; 82% overall agreement in Atlantic Canada and 81% in the Prairies), not having a big difference in income between the wealthy and everyone else (27%), and (at the bottom of the list) keeping taxes as low as possible even if this limits government services (20%).
Overall, Canadians believe their elected representatives are doing a good job of balancing competing interests on important issues most of the time (20 %) or some of the time (50%). Their view is the same for politicians in Ottawa as for politicians in provincial capitals or local communities. Confidence in elected governments to address the major issues facing society is stronger in the western provinces (51%) than in Ontario (44%), Quebec (41%), and the Atlantic provinces (44%). Almost four in ten Canadians (38%) believe that major disagreements about important values can be more effectively addressed through direct citizen action than by relying on elected governments.
At the same time, Canadians express broad support for recent grassroots citizen actions in Canada, especially when those actions work within an established institutional process. Almost nine in ten Canadians (86%) approve of the BC HST referendum (although a bit lower in BC (78%)), six in ten approve of the Occupy movement (62%), and just over half (56%) approve of the Quebec student protest (with such endorsement notably lower in Quebec, at 45%).
An infographic and an analytic summary of all of the poll results are available upon request.
Starting tomorrow, these issues and many more will be at the centre of a national dialogue on the common good. The 9th Annual Conference on Public Policy of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, The Common Good: Who Decides?, takes place in Edmonton, Alberta, from 22-24 November 2012. The conference will feature keynote speeches by eminent Canadians such as Michael Ignatieff, Preston Manning, and Edmonton mayor Stephen Mandel, and it bring together Canadian and foreign experts, experienced practitioners, and top-calibre researchers to explore questions such as the role of the media in democracy, the public interest in energy development, how institutions function, and citizens' role in developing and implementing policies that are good for the country.
Members of the media are invited to attend the conference. A full speaker list and a conference program are available on the Foundation's website: www.trudeaufoundation.ca/2012conference.
About the Foundation
A Canadian institution with a national purpose, the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation is an independent and non-partisan charity. It was established in 2001 as a living memorial to the former prime minister by his family, friends, and colleagues. In 2002, the Government of Canada endowed the Foundation with a donation of $125 million with the unanimous support of the House of Commons. In addition, the Foundation benefits from private sector donations in support of specific initiatives. Through its Scholarship, Fellowship, Mentorship, and Public Interaction Programs, the Foundation supports outstanding individuals who make meaningful contributions to critical public issues.
About the research
The results are based on a telephone survey conducted for the Environics Institute by Research House with a representative sample of 2,001 adult Canadians (18 years and older) between 2 and 14 October 2012. The sample was stratified by province and community size to ensure adequate coverage of jurisdictions for analysis purposes. A sample of this size produces a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. The margin of error is greater for results for regional and sociodemographic subgroups of the total sample.
The survey questions were designed by the Environics Institute in conjunction with representatives from the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation and the University of Alberta.
SOURCE: The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
Media registration or inquiries:
Calgary
Keri Lee
National Public
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Montreal
Roch Landriault
National Public Relations
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On site 22-24 November:
Elise Comtois
Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation
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