For decades, Canadian governments have not been delivering what most Canadians actually want.
Introduction
Canadians for a Sustainable Society commissioned Leger Market Research to conduct a large and thorough poll on the Canadian public’s thoughts on what they want and what current policy is actually delivering. The results are striking. Below we provide a summary of the results of the poll, which can be viewed in its entirety following this introduction.
- Canadians value access to nature, equality and the rule of law.
- Canadians value the quality of life over a larger economy.
- These results are diametrically opposed to the endless growth, developer/finance policies currently in place which fly in the face of demands for environmental balance and food and energy resilience, and now, as revealed by this survey, even with basic democratic principles.
- This is the largest poll on what Canadians want and how they see past and future trends. Here are 1500 responders answering over 25 questions that our developer/speculator-biased media corporations will not deal with.
The Conversation
Clearly there is no democratic support for mass immigration or its impacts. This can be no surprise to anyone outside of the media/political class but this poll illustrates just how disconnected from democratic (and environmental and fiscal) reality the national conversation has become. The poll provides hard numbers which should enable individuals to stand up and call out the misdirected policy and the corruption that underpins it, which is now so pervasive and dominant in Canada.
Almost certainly these poll results reflect public opinion in other countries which have followed a reckless growth-at-any-cost strategy, such as the UK, Australia and the USA, and have produced the same social and environmental results.
Over the past 5 decades the concept of good government has been pushed aside by interests whose agenda is to make Canada nothing more than a commercial market rather than a nation and to treat its people as consumers, rent-payers and cheap labour rather than citizens.
Thus, the manipulated national conversation has been misdirected to focus on the growth of the commercial economy and asset inflation (the wealth effect, asset enhancement, good for the economy, etc.,) as opposed to human well-being, environmental health and quality of life. Obviously, there is no democratic support for what has become a developer (colonizer) economy.
We invite you to make up your own mind. Have a look through a sample of the results below and then examine the full poll results in greater detail. Researchers may request the fully detailed poll results in Excel format.
Please look through a sample of the results and then examine the full poll results in greater detail. Hold these results out to business-as-usual media politicians promoting the failed and corrupt model of endless growth. Researchers may request the fully detailed poll results in Excel format.
Sample of Leger Poll results commissioned by Canadians for a Sustainable Society
Low support for a larger population and higher consumption.
25% of young adults have been forced to move by rent inflation. (“asset appreciation”)
Less than 20% support using immigration to change Canada’s culture and ethnic mix.
Less than 15% support importing cheap labour.
Quality of Life: Over 50% think it has declined vs 20% who think it has improved.
Regarding the current government policy (Century Initiative) of increasing Canada’s population from 40 million to 100 million, only 13% thought it was a good idea, while 60% thought it was a bad idea; a ratio of almost 5:1 against.
Regarding the best place to live: for 82% this was not a large city.
Regarding the increase of population in large cities: Quality of life was worse for 66% vs better for 8%; a ratio of 8:1 against enlarging cities (particularly on farmland).
Immigration Rate: 49% want less vs 36% who want more, a ratio of 3:2 against.
For skilled labour: 36% said invest in Canadians vs 4% said rely on immigration; a ratio of 9:1.
Areas of concern. Most want outcomes consistent with a stable population.
Issues making people upset. Most align with outcomes from a developer/population growth-based economy.
More respondents thought Canada is doing a poor vs a good job on various key issues related to quality of life and environment and solving problems arising population growth.
Regarding corruption and conflict of interest by politicians: 44% say politicians should have no involvement with companies they had regulated in their post-political career.
On corruption and politician links to developers, 59% support the creation of an RCMP organized crime task force.
Demographic question results. A stable (non-growing) population would be supported by 38% vs 35% wanting continued growth. 31% want reduced immigration vs 30% who don’t want reduced immigration.
The bottom line:
- For 40 years governments and media have called for and delivered what Canadians don’t want.
- Governments have delivered less affordable housing, failed environmental policies, lower quality of life, higher congestion and larger cities.
- Corruption is now absolutely blatant. Canadians want an RCMP task force on organized crime to look into the links between politicians and developers
- What Canadians want lines up with population stabilization.
- What Canadians don’t want lines up with what developers, speculators and debt mongers do want.
- Canadians don’t want the Century Initiative policy which has been quietly put in place for decades.
[A downloadable pdf is available.]