Less than half of Canadians hold open view of the world, poll finds

Survey explored discontent, optimism within the country to measure populist attitudes

OTTAWA— Canada’s reputation as a nation with an open and optimistic world-view that flies in the face of rising pessimism and nationalism elsewhere is being challenged by new research suggesting many Canadians hold views acutely in line with some of those darker forces.

Fewer than half of Canadians appear on the “open” side of an index devised by EKOS Research and The Canadian Press to gauge populist sentiment here, and the remainder either have a closed-off view of the world or are on the fence — a potentially volatile swing group.

The research aggregated polls involving 12,604 people to explore to what extent Canadians’ views are in line with voters who backed two of the most surprising manifestations of 21st-century populism: Donald Trump’s successful campaign for U.S. president and Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.

Both were understood to be the results of rising discontent among those side-swiped by technological, cultural and economic transforma- tion and seeking to regain some measure of control by eschewing the political status quo in favour of a dramatic new approach.

Whether Canada is facing a similar issue has been a question ever since.

The results of the study suggest 46 per cent of Canadians are openminded towards the world and each other, with the highest numbers found in British Columbia and the Atlantic provinces.

But 30 per cent report feeling economically and culturally insecure, a sentiment found in the largest numbers in Alberta and Saskatchewan. The remainder — roughly 25 per cent — have a mixed view.

To gauge where Canadians sit, EKOS Research and The Canadian Press aggregated responses to questions posed in two telephone polls between June and December about people’s perceptions of their economic outlook, class mobility, ethnic fluency and tolerance. Pollsters also asked whether they believed such movements were good or not.

The results were plotted on a spectrum from “open” to “ordered” — a new way of classifying people’s political viewpoints that goes beyond the traditional right-versus-left.

The old partisan markers are driven by fiscal and social philosophies and are less a part of today’s political debate than broader opinions about how the world should be run, said EKOS president Frank Graves.

“The questions now are: Do you want to pull up the drawbridge? What do you think about people who don’t have the same skin colour as you? What do you think about the importance of tolerating dissent or having a more-ordered versus a more-chaotic or creative society?”

The telephone polls had a margin of error of 0.9 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

Questions about class and inequality are top of mind this week as world leaders meet in Davos, Switzerland, for the annual World Economic Forum. Among them is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and an entourage of Liberal cabinet ministers.

“We must have the full and equal participation of all to have economies that work for everyone and a future that is fairer, more inclusive, and more compassionate,” Trudeau said in a statement ahead of the trip.

It’s a message that the 25 per cent of Canadians who fall into the “mixed” category in the study are meant to hear, suggested Graves. “That’s a swing group,” Graves said. “They are probably people who were on the ‘open’ side 10 years ago.”