Majority of Canadians support maskwearing: poll

A new survey suggests the recent rise in new COVID-19 cases across Canada comes with a similar increase in support for the mandatory wearing of masks in public places.

The online survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies says 83 per cent of respondents feel governments should order people to wear a mask in all indoor public spaces.

That represented a 16-percent increase from July, before the recent rise in COVID-19 cases has sparked concerns many parts of the country are entering the dreaded second wave of the pandemic.

Even more — 87 per cent — felt wearing a mask was a civic duty because it protects others from COVID-19 while 21 per cent felt it was an infringement on personal freedoms, a decline of six per cent from July.

As for the anti-mask protests that have happened in various parts of the country in recent weeks, 88 per cent of respondents said they opposed the demonstrations while 12 per cent supported them.

The online poll was conducted Sept. 18 to 20 and surveyed 1,538 adult Canadians. It cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.

“In a way, again, the antimaskers are a minority and not a growing minority in Canada,” said Leger executive vice-president Christian Bourque.

“The fear of catching it is on the rise. People believing there will be a second wave is on the rise. And now people saying we should make the masks mandatory is on the rise.”

Fears of contracting the novel coronavirus that causes the illness known as COVID19 have indeed been steadily growing since the end of June.

Sixty-one per cent of respondents in this latest poll worried about catching the illness that has infected more than 145,000 Canadians, killing more than 9,200. That compared to 51 per cent in mid-June.