Albertans are proudest to sing O Canada, poll finds
Whether mumbling half-remembered lyrics or giving it the full-throated rendition, a clear majority of Canadians responding to a cross-country survey say they feel a swelling of pride whenever they sing the national anthem — something many will have a chance to do this Canada Day weekend.
But citizens are considerably less likely to display their love of country on shirts and hats, according to the web-panel poll of 1,500 people commissioned by the Montreal-based Association for Canadian Studies and carried out June 10-12 by the firm Leger Marketing.
About 75 per cent of the population gets a surge of patriotic feeling when warbling O Canada. And a “slight majority” of 53 per cent of Quebec residents expressed pride in singing the 133-year-old national song, which was composed in 1880 by Quebec musician Calixa Lavallee.
Albertans were most likely — at 86 per cent — to express an upwelling of emotion when singing the song. Outside Quebec, eight out of 10 Canadians said they feel pride when belting out the anthem, with respondents from Manitoba/ Saskatchewan (84 per cent), B.C. (83), Ontario (80) and Atlantic Canada (79 per cent) all registering strong results.
However, only 36 per cent of Canadians responded that they had worn a T-shirt or hat with a maple leaf within the past year. The survey results have a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20.