Young Canadians' attitudes towards monarchy shifting, says ancestry.ca
- Canadians aged 18 to 34 more supportive of celebrating Victoria Day than they were before the Royal Wedding
- Women overwhelmingly favour Prince William as successor to the throne
- 200 million immigration records will be free to access this long weekend
TORONTO, May 18, 2012 /CNW/ - As Canada readies itself for its fourth royal visit in as many years with the upcoming tour of Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall in May, and Victoria Day shortly afterwards, it seems that Canada's feelings for the Royal Family remain as strong as ever.
In fact, these feelings may even be growing, according to a new national omnibus survey commissioned by Ancestry.ca, which has revealed overwhelming support for Victoria Day with two-thirds or 66 per cent of Canadians still feeling it is appropriate to commemorate the day, assuming that there would still be a long weekend in May.1
To commemorate Victoria Day, Ancestry.ca, Canada's leading family history resource2, will be providing free access to the world's largest collection of digitized online immigration records from 12:01am May 17th to 11: 59pm May 21st. These records detail the travels made by Canadians' immigrant ancestors who left their home country for a better life in Canada. They include the ancestors of the 38 per cent of Canadians that claim British heritage.3
The Ancestry.ca survey also found that there may be a new allegiance to the monarchy among younger Canadians, compared to the results of a national online survey conducted in May of 2010. The new survey also reveals that Canadians would overwhelmingly prefer to see Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, become reigning monarch rather than his father Prince Charles.
In 2010, younger Canadians were less in favor of Victoria Day; only 62 per cent of those aged 18 to 34 supported celebrating Victoria Day compared to 70 per cent of those aged 65 and older.4 The new survey results, however, uncover that 66 per cent of Canadians aged 18 to 34 now support celebrating Victoria Day, with the slight upward trend perhaps ignited by last year's Royal Wedding.
Not surprisingly, Quebec is the province with the least support for the holiday, with only 30 per cent of respondents feeling it is appropriate to commemorate Victoria Day. Ontarians, at 81 per cent, show the most support.
William over Charles, overwhelmingly
Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, will visit New Brunswick, Toronto and Saskatchewan during a three-day tour in May that begins on Victoria Day. Seventy-nine per cent of respondents would like to see Prince William as the commonwealth's next king, with 83 per cent of women preferring William's succession compared to 75 per cent of men.
Canadians from Alberta would most like to see Prince William as king with 86 per cent supporting him succeeding his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II, perhaps due in part to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's triumphant visit to Calgary last year. Interestingly, support for Prince William over his father Prince Charles does not differ significantly among different age groups.
Lesley Anderson, genealogist and family historian for Ancestry.ca, comments: "While perhaps predictable that so many Canadians would prefer to see Prince William as Canada's next reigning monarch, the increasing trend among younger Canadians is striking."
"As a historical event, time will tell if the Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will in fact come to be seen as a milestone that resulted in a shift in attitude among young Canadians regarding the monarchy."
Free Access to Immigration Records
From May 17th to 21st, Ancestry.ca will provide free access to 200 million immigration and travel records from around the world, including 13.5 million records specific to Canada. This includes the complete , Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935, Border Crossings: From U.S. to Canada, 1908-1935, and Canadian Immigrant Records, Part One and Part Two, as well as Citizenship and Naturalization records, Immigration and Emigration Books and even ship pictures and descriptions.
Free access to the complete collection of Immigration and Travel databases is available at www.ancestry.ca/immigration.
About Ancestry.ca
Canada's leading family history website, Ancestry.ca hosts 128 million Canadian records, including the complete historical Canadian censuses from 1851 to 1916, Ontario and British Columbia vital records from as early as 1813, Quebec vital records (The Drouin Collection), Canadian passenger lists and U.S. / Canada border crossings.
Ancestry.ca was launched in January 2006 and is part of Ancestry.com Inc, the world's largest online family history resource, with 1.9 million paying subscribers. More than 10 billion records have been added to the site in the past 15 years. Ancestry users have created more than 34 million family trees containing approximately four billion profiles. In addition to its flagship site www.ancestry.com, Ancestry.com Inc offers several localized web sites designed to empower people to discover, preserve and share their family history.
____________________________________
1 From May 3rd to May 4th 2012, an online survey was conducted among a sample of 1,001 Canadian adults who are also Angus Reid Forum panel members. The margin of error — which measures sampling variability — is +/- 3.10%, 19 times out of 20. The sample was balanced by age, gender, region and education (and language in Quebec) according to the most recent census data. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.
2 comScore, 2011, based on genealogy related websites selected from the Family and Parenting sub-category under the Community category.
3 Statistics Canada. 2006 Census of Canada: Ethnic origins, 2006 counts, for Canada, provinces and territories.
4 Zoomerang national online survey of 1,037 Canadians, conducted May 5 - 10, 2010.
Jeri Brown / Ginger Shewell
Media Profile
416-504-8464
[email protected] / [email protected]
Share this article