The rapidity with which the environment has climbed to the top of the list as the most important issue facing the country has astounded pollsters. A year ago, just 4 in 100 Canadians would said “the environment”, if you asked them what is the top public policy issue. This year, better than one in four Canadians say it’s number one, eclipsing healthcare as the perennial top issue in Canada.
Allan Gregg told me that, in the early 1990s, healthcare barely registered on “top issues” polling but by the middle of the decade it was number one and has stayed at number one for most of the decade. Gregg says he wouldn’t be surprised if “environmental issues” remained the most important issue for Canadians for the remainder of this decade and beyond.
So, here’s the question that Gregg’s firm The Strategic Counsel, the pollster for CTV News and The Globe and Mail, put in front of a 1,000 Canadians earlier this month:
Q. In your opinion, what is the most important issue facing Canada today – that is the one you are most concerned about?
Here the results when this question was asked between Jan 4–11, 2007
- Environmental issues – 26 %
- Healthcare – 18%
- Government leadership / stability / foreign policy – 6%
- Terrorism (includes all mentions of Afghanistan) – 6 %
- Economic issues (excluding govt spending or unemployment) – 6 %
- Unemployment – 4 %
- Taxes – 3 %
- Education – 3%
- Government Spending – 3 %
- Crime/violence – 3 %
- Sponsorship scandal / Corruption – 1 %
- Gas Prices – less than 1 %
The Strategic Counsel surveyed 1,000 Canadians between Jan. 11 and Jan . 14. The pollster says that, on a national basis, the poll is accurate to within 3.2 percentage points.
Here are the results when this question was asked Jan. 4–5, 2006. Remember, Canada was in the midst of the election campaign. The sample size for this poll was 1,500 and, as a result, the pollster believes the margin of error is smaller than the poll reported above. Take particular note of where crime/violence ranked and where environment ranked then.
- Healthcare – 25 %
- Crime/violence – 10 %
- Sponsorship scandal / corruption – 8 %
- Government leadership / stability / foreign policy – 8 %
- Economic issues (excluding govt spending or unemployment) – 6 %
- Environmental issues – 4%
- Taxes – 3%
- Education – 2%
- Government spending – 2%
- Unemployment – 2%
- Gas prices – 1%
- Terrorism (includes all mentions of Afghanistan) – 1%