Most Canadians think the country is making progress on reconciliation: poll
'The extent to which people feel progress on reconciliation is being made or not has an important bearing on how they feel about the country,' said Jack Jedwab, president and CEO of the Association for Canadian Studies, which commissioned the poll.
The survey of 1,580 respondents was conducted between June 20 and 22. A margin of error cannot be associated to the survey because online polls are not considered to be truly random samples.
Forty-seven of the respondents self-identified as Indigenous. Jedwab said that small number and the lack of regional breakdowns of the numbers means the poll should be interpreted with caution.
But the poll still shows where Canadians are 10 years after the final report from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was released, he said.
Story continues below advertisement
'There's several attempts to measure progress on reconciliation by virtue of the extent to which we, collectively, have met the conditions of the various calls to action in the Truth and Reconciliation (Commission's) report,' Jedwab said. 'But we're not really taking, up to now, the pulse of Canadians in terms of whether or not they feel progress is being made.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy
'It's sort of a proxy for helping us understand how Canadians feel about their relationships.'
Fifty-five per cent of poll respondents said they believe Canada is making good progress on reconciliation, but their answers vary widely between age groups — 40 per cent of respondents aged 18 to 24 said Canada was making progress, while 67 per cent of respondents 65 and older said the same.
Jedwab said he was surprised to see such a large number of respondents reporting progress, given the many issues in the Crown-Indigenous relationship still unresolved.
'The survey suggests there's something to build on with respect to the relationship, with respect to reconciliation and with respect to how people feel about the country,' he said.
The survey also asked whether Canadians trust other Canadians — the vast majority of respondents said they do. But respondents aged 18 to 24 reported being the most trusting of others, at 77 per cent, while those aged 35 to 44 were the least trusting at 52 per cent.
Story continues below advertisement
Roughly six in ten non-Indigenous respondents said they trusted Indigenous people. Reported trust in Indigenous people is highest in Nova Scotia (71 per cent) and Ontario (64.3 per cent) and lowest in Saskatchewan (38.3 per cent), P.E.I. (43.8 per cent) and Manitoba (44.8 per cent).
The survey also suggests respondents who said they are proud of Canada's history are more likely to report Canada is making good progress on reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, at 68 per cent. Of those who reported they're not proud of Canada's history, just 39.3 per cent said they believe Canada is making good progress.
Pride in Canada's history seems to be strongly correlated with the age of respondents. Just 36 per cent of respondents aged 18 to 24 reported feeling proud of that history, while 78 per cent of those 65 and older said the same.
Francophone youth reported being more proud of Canada's history (59 per cent) than anglophones (35 per cent) — a finding Jedwab said he was surprised by, given the persistence of the province's separatist movement.
Jedwab said while the poll found most Indigenous respondents reported feeling pride in Canadian history, it can't be taken at face value because the sample size was so small.
'There's a need to actually pursue further research in this area to get a better idea of how Indigenous Peoples feel,' he said.
Story continues below advertisement
'We need to be more attentive to that diversity in terms of drawing conclusions about the views of Indigenous Peoples … We do need to better understand what the nature of the relationship is right now, how people feel about whether progress is being achieved or not and how we go forward together.'
The polling industry's professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Global News
6 hours ago
- Global News
As Trump hikes tariffs, B.C. jobs minister urges Carney to ‘negotiate hard'
British Columbia's minister of jobs and economic growth is urging the federal government to stand firm and 'negotiate hard' when trying to find a solution to 35 per cent tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump's Ravi Kahlon's advice to Prime Minister Mark Carney and his negotiating team is to keep up what they're doing, and 'find a path forward the best they can.' A statement from Premier David Eby's office says he remains focused on protecting workers and businesses in B.C. from the 'deeply harmful tariffs' imposed by Trump's administration. It says Eby supports the federal government's efforts to get a 'good deal' for Canada, adding that he looks forward to speaking to the prime minister about the situation. 1:09 Scott Moe says Canada should lower or remove counter-tariffs on the U.S. The United States imposed a 35 per cent tariff on all Canadian goods outside the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement on free trade after an agreement couldn't be reached by the Aug. 1 deadline. Story continues below advertisement Several other jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom and the European Union, have reached deals before the deadline. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy Kahlon said Trump is 'constantly finding ways to raise the temperature' so 'they can squeeze out the most' from any agreement. He said he believes Carney and Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc are taking the right approach, 'which is keeping their head down, continue to be at the table, continue to find solutions, and not getting distracted by the day-to-day swings of the president of the United States.' He said he would also highlight the importance of the softwood lumber industry for B.C., which is just as crucial as the auto industry is to Ontario. 'The forest sector here in British Columbia should get the same support,' Kahlon said. Both Eby and Kahlon have repeatedly argued that the long-running softwood lumber dispute with the United States should be part of a larger deal. 5:53 CCPA on new Trump tariffs against Canada Brian Menzies, executive director of the Independent Wood Processors Association of British Columbia, said he is 'not very optimistic' that a future deal would also resolve the softwood dispute as the industry already faces combined tariffs and duties of almost 35 per cent. Story continues below advertisement 'We have been at this for eight years now, and there doesn't seem to be enough of a push on the American side to resolve this,' he said. Menzies also favours ongoing negotiations with the United States to resolve the tariff dispute. 'I would say it's better to get a good deal than a bad deal,' he said. 'I'd say right now, 'Do your best to stand up for what's important for Canada,'' he said. Menzies said being 'kowtowed and pushed over' is not good for Canada or the United States. 'People respect people who stand up for what's important to them, and that's the basis for any negotiation,' Menzies said. Menzies noted that any future deal with the United States might not last long, given Trump's temperament. Kahlon agreed. 'We take nothing for granted,' he said. 'It's a sad state for us in Canada to have a partner down south that doesn't honour a handshake, an agreement,' he said. 'It's hard to do business with somebody that is hard to trust when these things come.' Kahlon added that even the United Kingdom and the European Union are not sure if they actually have agreements with the United States. Story continues below advertisement 'So the uncertainty continues,' he said.
Vancouver Sun
6 hours ago
- Vancouver Sun
B.C. NDP has promises to keep, but no money to spend
VICTORIA — The New Democrats face increasing pressure to live up to their commitments on long-term care for seniors, child care for families, and safeguards for children in government care. The most recent push came this week from the B.C. seniors advocate, Dan Levitt. He warned that seniors on the waiting list for long-term care facilities are clogging hospital beds and ER waiting rooms. The number of seniors on waiting lists for publicly funded long term care has tripled under the NDP, from 2,381 the year before they took office to 7,212 currently, Levitt reported. A daily roundup of Opinion pieces from the Sun and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Informed Opinion will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Premier David Eby defended the government's performance, saying the New Democrats had added 5,500 spaces since taking power. Yet Levitt provided a scorecard on NDP election promises. The party's 2020 election platform promised 3,315 new beds and replacements for 1,755 others. To date, it has only delivered a fraction, 380 net new beds in all. The advocate identified the current shortfall at 2,000 beds. Eby professed to welcome the findings and conceded, given an aging population, 'we have to build faster, we have to build more and we have to build it more affordably to meet the demand that's out there,' Earlier this summer, the Coalition of Child Care Advocates lamented B.C.'s faltering progress on $10-a-day child care, a key promise in NDP election platforms going back to 2017. 'In 2018, because of $10-a-day advocacy, B.C. became a national leader in child care,' said spokesperson Sharon Gregson in a June 24 news release. 'That progress has now stalled. With just three years remaining in the government's 10-year plan, the province has flatlined provincial child care funding in the last two budgets, with no new provincial funds committed to achieving the promise of quality, universal $10-a-day child care by 2028.' Joining Gregson in the call was former NDP MLA Katrina Chen, who served as the NDP's minister of state for child care under Premier John Horgan. 'We need to get child care back on track in B.C.,' she said. Three weeks later came a survey from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives which found that B.C. had the most expensive child care in the country. Only 10 per cent of the province's licensed spaces met the $10-a-day standard promised by the NDP. Also in mid-July, the child and youth representative, Jennifer Charlesworth, provided a one-year update on the recommendations in Don't Look Away, her report on the horrific case ofYou saw there is a correction Colby. Colby is the name the representative gave to the 11-year-old Indigenous boy, tortured to death by the extended family members into whose care he was placed by the government. While acknowledging the province had made 'significant progress in some areas,' the representative said it still fell well short of where it needs to be in safeguarding children in care. 'We said in our report Colby's death was entirely preventable and without significant change future deaths are entirely predictable,' Charlesworth told Simi Sara on CKNW. 'Important changes have been made. But we are still in a very precarious state in child well-being and we've got a lot of work still to do before I can say with confidence that it's extremely unlikely that this kind of horrific situation would not happen again.' Charlesworth credited the New Democrats with good intentions in their response to the report. But she also flagged the main reason for the lack of sufficient progress on her recommendations. 'I am very concerned that with fiscal limitations, these good intentions will not translate into timely on the ground improvements,' the representative told Ashley Joannou of The Canadian Press. 'The government has a significant deficit, there are fiscal reviews underway, and what we worry — because we have seen it many times — that what gets cut are social programs.' One could readily adapt the same excuse for the NDP failure to deliver on child care, long-term care and any number of other programs and priorities. Premier David Eby referred this week to the 'fiscal challenges' facing his government, an understatement if ever there was one. The government is budgeting for an $11 billion deficit this year and shortfalls of $10 billion each of the next two years. Moreover, with the economy slowing and revenues faltering, the fiscal situation could get worse. In his time as premier, Eby has failed to manage the budget or set realistic priorities, instead spending as if there were no limit. Now, when he's run out of money, he faces the challenge of satisfying the expectations he and the New Democrats themselves have raised. In a column Friday on the LNG Canada terminal in Kitimat, I wrote that an LNG Canada spokesperson said 'a new facility of this size and scope may face operational setbacks.' The quote marks wrongly gave the impression of a direct quote from the company. Rather, it was a paraphrase from a story by the Reuters news agency. An LNG Canada spokesperson says the company told Reuters: 'A new facility of the size and complexity of LNG Canada requires a break-in period to stabilize, which is normal in new LNG facilities.' vpalmer@
Montreal Gazette
7 hours ago
- Montreal Gazette
Letters: Canada-U.S. relationship will never be the same
Re: ' American writer shocked by how furious Canadians are with the United States ' (NP Montreal, July 25) In his New York magazine article, the writer suggests the Canadian chill toward the United States will eventually 'thaw,' especially if the next president is a Democrat. Maybe. But I doubt Canadians will soon forget how America turned against us after being the closest of allies and partners for decades. The anger will probably subside, but I believe the relationship will never be the same — never as trusting or as deep. America has shown us who they are. Jerry Trudeau, N.D.G. Rich get richer under Trump The U.S. is projected to receive $300 billion from tariffs collected internationally, while the so-called 'one big, beautiful bill' proposes cuts to government and social services. No plan seems to exist to share tariff revenue with Americans who have the greatest need. Instead, it seems destined to underwrite a tax cut that will benefit the wealthiest citizens. It's expected consumers will bear the biggest brunt of these tariffs. This might be acceptable if the money was being used to help those who are the most impacted by inflation and struggling to make ends meet. But it seems Trump takes from the poor and gives to the rich. Natalie Turko-Slack, Pierrefonds Santé Québec progress report? Re: ' Over 900,000 Quebecers on wait-lists for specialists ' (The Gazette, July 17) More than six months have passed since the CAQ government launched Santé Québec, the bureaucratic adjunct to the Health Ministry. It was supposed to operate with much improved efficiency to deliver better health care to more Quebecers, many of whom now lack either primary care doctors or timely services. As we wait to see concrete results form Santé Québec, I believe it is incumbent upon that organization to present a 'progress report' of what exactly has been accomplished so far and what plans are in the making so that we can have some reassurance that the huge cost for this major bureaucratic organization is not a colossal waste of the taxpayers money. Goldie Olszynko, Mile End Ozzy's Crazy Train late on arrival Re: ' Birmingham, the 'home of metal,' gives emotional farewell to Ozzy Osbourne ' (NP Montreal, July 31) I clearly remember in 1980 when Crazy Train was released as a single and never made it to the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart. Seems it was too intense, too heavy metal. This week's Hot 100 has it at No. 46, and it is likely to rise. Turns out this classic has a new life, even if the artist's life had to end. Edmund Gleason, Pincourt Submitting a letter to the editor Letters should be sent by email to letters@ We prioritize letters that respond to, or are inspired by, articles published by The Gazette. If you are responding to a specific article, let us know which one. Letters should be sent uniquely to us. The shorter they are — ideally, fewer than 200 words — the greater the chance of publication. Timing, clarity, factual accuracy and tone are all important, as is whether the writer has something new to add to the conversation. We reserve the right to edit and condense all letters. Care is taken to preserve the core of the writer's argument. Our policy is not to publish anonymous letters, those with pseudonyms or 'open letters' addressed to third parties. Letters are published with the author's full name and city or neighbourhood/borough of residence. Include a phone number and address to help verify identity; these will not be published. We will not indicate to you whether your letter will be published. If it has not been published within 10 days or so, it is not likely to be.
