Most oppose border reopening to the U.S.
83% want strict restrictions to remain, poll says
EDMONTON • Canadians aren’t ready to see the border with the United States reopened, with 83 per cent saying it should remain closed for the time being, according to new polling.
The poll, done by DART & Maru/blue, says that just 17 per cent of Canadians believe it’s time for the border to reopen to non-commercial traffic, even as there is more and more talk about reopening businesses and loosening restrictions domestically.
The Canada-u.s. border has been closed to tourist traffic since March 21, and officials are negotiating, according to news reports, to keep the border closed until June 21 in an effort to slow the travel-related spread of COVID-19.
(On Friday, Chrystia Freeland, the deputy prime minister, declined to comment to reporters on those talks.)
“This reaction (of Canadians) at the moment should not be a surprising one,” said pollster John Wright. “Canadians recognize ... the virus does not respect borders.”
Alberta is home to the highest percentage of outliers — consistent, says Wright, across some of his recent research. In Alberta, 31 per cent of respondents felt it was time to open up travel across the U.S. border; the next highest percentage is in Quebec, where just 18 per cent of people believe that.
Still, Wright says, that’s a solid majority — 69 per cent in Alberta — who believe the border should remain closed.
“I’m not exactly sure what’s influencing that view,” said Wright, though there are some hypotheticals, such as the economic issues in Alberta that are unique.
The poll also asks a series of separate questions about what measures should be in place if and when the border begins to reopen.
The difficulty for politicians is going to come when they need to figure out how to reopen the border — especially when Canadians can see easily how the pandemic response is going south of the border.
“Politicians are going to have a very interesting balance between our neighbours and who we are here in Canada and what we want,” said Wright.
All in, about 52 per cent of Canadians would be OK if the border opened now, though that figure breaks down further on the basis of a number of conditions.
Of that group, five per cent of Canadians polled said the border should be reopened freely to reunite family and help business.
“Everyone else, everyone else, 93 to 95 per cent of people in this country, begin to put conditions on after that,” said Wright.
Far more people within that 52 per cent were OK with the border controls loosening if there were checks.
Twenty-two per cent said they would be OK with it if there were strict regulations on face masks and physical distancing, and if people could be fined and deported if they broke the regulations.
As well, 25 per cent said the border should reopen “soon and carefully,” with visitors receiving a temperature check and have not had any health symptoms in the 14 days prior to arriving in the country.
But the other half of Canadians (48 per cent) believe there should be even more strict conditions: 24 per cent believe there ought to be proof they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19, even though that isn’t an option for a significant amount of time.
And 23 per cent believe the border should be shut “indefinitely to any visitor traffic between Canada and the United States, regardless of consequence or retaliation.”
The poll also asked questions about whether or not those polled would, themselves, visit the United States if they could.
Just 12 per cent would actually cross the border, and 21 per cent would let a friend or relative from the U.S. come and visit them.
Again, Albertans were the outlier: 17 per cent said they would, followed by Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Quebec at 13 per cent, British Columbia and Ontario at 12 per cent and Atlantic Canada at seven per cent.
The research was done among 1,512 randomly selected Canadian adults who are members of Maru/ Blue’s online panel on May 13. It is considered accurate to within +/- 3.9 percentage points.