Poll Suggest “Unease” Over Direction of the Country

(Arielle Godbout — Canwest News Service)

As Canada celebrates its birthday, only a slim majority of citizens feel the country is “moving in the right track,” according to a new poll for Canwest News Service and Global National.

Fifty-six per cent of respondents in the Ipsos Reid poll said Canada was on the right path, while 44 per cent felt the nation was “headed in the wrong direction.”

“It’s not an enthusiastic country at the moment,” said John Wright, Ipsos Reid’s senior vice-president. “But it’s not the end of the world and it certainly isn’t a time when people are panicking.”

The poll also measured Canadians’ attitudes toward the economy and the need for an election. “You have to judge the mood of a country a little bit like the mood of an individual,” Wright said, explaining the multiple topics. “Sometimes your stomach’s not feeling well but your head’s clear.”

Sixty-five per cent of Canadians surveyed believed the economy’s condition to be “very good” or “good,” but that number is down six percentage points since May.

And while Ontario and Atlantic Canada appear to be the most pessimistic, with respondents who feel the economy’s state is “poor” hovering at 40 and 38 per cent respectively, symptoms of unease are being seen across the country, said Wright.

“Even in places where you would have an expectation that things were going really well, such as in Alberta and where the oil patch is, it’s even there where some anxiety is rising up.” Twenty-two per cent of Albertans polled said the economy was in “poor” condition. Read more.