Our nation’s true colours

As the country celebrates its 145th birthday, a Forum Research poll commissioned for the National Post reveals the complexities of Canadian identity — the ebbs and flows of patriotism and the things that compel Canadians to identify first by their cities,

1 THE YOUNG ARE LESS PATRIOTIC Younger Canadians are far less likely to think of themselves as Canadians first than their parents are — a full 22 points stands between them, at 56% for Canadians aged 18-34 and an average of 78% for people aged 55 and over. “National identification is something that grows over time,” Mr. Jedwab said. “The first thing people interact with is their family, and then it’s the school and the neighbourhood and the things they can see around them. People don’t start thinking about national issues until they’re older.” 2 LESS MONEY, MORE LOCAL The less money you make, the less likely you are to primarily identify yourself as a Canadian. Those who make less than $20,000 are far more likely to identify themselves by their city first than their richer counterparts — with 23% of low-income Canadians choosing their locality versus just 7% of wealthier Canadians who make more than $100,000. Atlantic Canadians, whose families have the lowest median incomes, were second only to Quebec in being least likely to put Canada first. 3 ON IDENTITY, ONTARIO IS WITH THE WEST When it comes to Canada’s east-west divide on just about anything else — time zone, NHL conference, seat allotment in the Senate — Ontario is with the east. But on patriotism, the province stands squarely with the west. Canadians in Ontario, Manitoba and Saskatchewan, Alberta and B.C. are far more likely to say they are Canadians first — at 80%, 75%, 68% and 83%, respectively — than those in Atlantic Canada, at 57%, and Quebec, a mere 38%. 4 BUCKING THE STEREOTYPE, ALBERTANS PUT CANADA FIRST It turns out Albertans are more patriotic than Atlantic Canadians — a sign, Mr. McGrane said, of dwindling Alberta angst. “Western alienation is at an all-time low,” he said. “There’s a western guy in the prime minister’s office, the west is growing in power, you see [Alberta premier] Alison Redford talking like a stateswoman ... perhaps people [in Alberta] are warming up to Canada.” 5 NDP HAS QUEBEC NATIONALISTS WITHIN NDP voters are not only the least likely to say they are Canadians first, but they are also more likely than Conservative, Liberal, and Green voters to identify themselves by their province. “The NDP is very strong in Quebec these days ... and the numbers suggest to me there are some [Quebec] nationalists in the NDP base,” Mr. Bozinoff said. “They have a group of people, 24%, who are identifying with a province, and I think that province is Quebec.” 6 B.C. IS THE MOST PATRIOTIC, THANKS TO OLYMPIC GLOW The left-coast province took the lead as most patriotic: 83% of British Columbians identified with Canada first, compared to 80% in Ontario. The standings surprised Mr. Mcgrane and Mr. Gifford, who both credited the Olympics. “Hosting the games might have made people in B.C. feel more attached to Canada,” Mr. Mcgrane said. Mr. Gifford said “recent events can skew things,” while Mr. Siemiatycki put it this way: “Were this question asked in a fantasy time, for example the day after the Toronto Maple Leafs win the Stanley Cup, you’d probably see more people in Toronto identifying with Toronto first.” 7 ONTARIO IS SICK OF BEING ‘CANADA WRIT SMALL’ Even though Ontarians are still the least likely to identify with their province first, at just 7%, Mr. Jedwab and Mr. Mcgrane said something is afoot: A growing sense of regional identity. Myriad factors have sparked the soul-searching, they said, from becoming a have-not province, to resentment over public-sector job cuts, to political disillusionment generally. “It used to be that there is no Ontario because Ontario is Canada,” said Mr. McGrane, who has studied the recent phenomenon. “But there’s been a shift of political and economic power to the west, and I think Ontario sees itself as a less a lynchpin of Confederation holding everything together. I think they’re questioning whether they want to be Ontarians first.” 8 ATTACHMENT TO THE LAND AND SEA BREEDS LOCAL PRIDE East Coasters are the most likely to identify themselves by their city or town, at 19%. “Some people don’t have any sense of what’s called ‘place identity’ — they’re rootless, they’re nomads — whereas for other people there’s a sense of ‘my blood and genes arise from this soil,’” Mr. Gifford said. “This may be at play in Atlantic Canada, with all the fishing and farming — the connection to the actual ground there.” 9 QUEBEC RAIDS OTTAWA’S POCKETS BUT PUTS PROVINCE FIRST Quebecers were least likely to say they are Canadians first, with a full 59% putting their city or province ahead of the country. And yet: The province will receive $17.4-billion in federal equalization payments this year — second only to Ontario, which is getting $19.5-billion. 10 IN THE END, IT ’S CANADA FIRST More than two-thirds of those polled think of themselves as Canadians first. That figure, Mr. Siemiatycki said, flies in the face of popular wisdom that says Canadians have a weak sense of national identity. “I would argue that two-thirds speaks to a pretty strong attachment to a country that we know, by definition, is a diverse, complicated and sprawling place,” he said. 11 WHEN IT COMES TO CHEERING ON A TEAM, IT DEPENDS WHO’S PLAYING Don’t be fooled by all the German, Italian and Greek flags mounted to car roofs during Euro Cup season. If Canada were playing in international soccer competition, Canadians would cheer for it. Mr. Bozinoff said when it comes to international competitions like the Olympics, 83% said they would cheer for the Canadian team, while only 3% said they would back the team from an origin country. 12 ON CROSSCOUNTRY TRAVEL, QUEBECERS ARE HOMEBODIES Quebecers are the least likely to travel to other provinces. With a mean of four other provinces visited, Quebecers were two provinces shy of the national figure. Atlantic Canadians as well as people in Manitoba and Saskatchewan had visited the most provinces other than theirs — 7 — but Mr. Bozinoff is less impressed with the Atlantic result because three of the four provinces are within about an hour of each other. 13 IDEALISM HAS AN EXPIRY DATE — AGE 55 When asked whether they feel more or less proud of Canada today than they did than five years ago, younger Canadians were the most pessimistic: Only 24% said they were more proud, as compared to 38% among those 65 and older. “In the younger age categories, more people are less proud than more proud, but then that flips when you get to the older groups and it becomes the opposite,” Mr. Bozinoff said. “Perhaps that’s part of growing up and being disillusioned ... The idealism wears off when you’re about 55.” 14 HERE, MITT ROMNEY WOULD NOT STAND A CHANCE If U.S. President Barack Obama were running for election in Canada, he would win big. He has the support of 67% of Canadians, whereas Mitt Romney, the Republican, could count on just 17% of the votes. “Canada is, in U.S. terms, a Democratic country,” Mr. Bozinoff said. 15 THE LIBERALS, NDP, GREENS AND BLOC ARE FOUR PEAS IN A POD Canadian Conservative voters are the “odd man out” when it comes to Obama versus Romney, Mr. Bozinoff said: They supported Mr. Romney to the tune of 36%, whereas Liberal, NDP, Green and Bloc Québécois voters only supported Mr. Romney with 10%, 10%, 9% and 9%, respectively. “That suggests that those four parties are a lot closer to each other [on the political spectrum] than you might otherwise think,” he said. “They’re all agreeing, almost exactly.”