Pride in the government drops as Canadians feel the burn of a bad economy

Canadians are becoming increasingly upset with the status quo in their country according to new polling that revealed a significant dropoff in pride among several key institutions in Canada. The shifts have been a remarkable change. 

Only three items on a list of ten surveyed by Research Co. in its annual look at Canada and its institutions were found to still be sources of pride for Canadians, including the Canadian flag (82%), the armed forces (72%), and hockey (71%). 

The Canadian flag and armed forces both saw a two-point rise over results from the previous while hockey saw a single-point decline. The other seven institutions on the list have almost all seen major declines since last being looked at in 2023. 

Multiculturalism, once the pride of the nation, has seen a nine-point drop as a source of pride for Canadians even though 65% still see the nation’s diversity as something to be proud of while pride for bilingualism is down by six points to just 55%. 

Research Co. President Mario Canseco suggested in a breakdown of the public opinion group’s findings in a report for Business Intelligence for B.C. that age plays a role in the different ways that Canadians view their institutions. 

Pride in the Canadian flag, armed forces, and hockey was higher among those over the age of 55 while pride in the country’s multiculturalism and bilingualism was a lot higher among Canada’s younger generations, particularly those aged 18-34.

The different generations are also diverging when it comes to pride in major issues like healthcare and immigration according to Canseco. Generation X is emerging as a group of individuals who are dissatisfied with how decision-makers are being chosen.

“Only 50 percent of Canadians aged 35-54 are proud of the state of democracy in the country, compared to 57 percent for those aged 55 and over and 58 percent for those aged 18-34,” Canseco explained. National pride in Canada’s democracy only hit 55%. 

Canadians are also much less prideful about the country’s healthcare systems with only 48% of those surveyed noting so, which is down four points from 2023, while the justice system also earned the same pride percentage (48%), down only two points from 2023. 

Pride in healthcare saw some particularly extreme fluctuations across the country based on the findings from Research Co. Ontario led the provinces with 57% of people taking pride in their system. In comparison, Atlantic Canada saw just 28%. 

The most worrying finding of the survey discovered that Canadians take very little pride in their elected politicians with only 38% saying they were proud of Parliament, a figure that is down seven points from the previous year. 

“As expected, Liberal voters in 2021 are more buoyant about this institution (58 percent) than those who cast ballots for the New Democratic Party (NDP) (43 percent) or the Conservative Party (28 percent) in the last federal election,” Canseco explained. 

Canadians also took very little pride in the monarchy. 35% stated they were proud of the institution, which was up by one point from 2023. However, pride in the monarchy did not bottom the list in 2024 as it normally did in previous years. The economy took that spot.  

Only 34% of those surveyed said they took pride in the country’s economy, which was a major departure from findings made in 2019 prior to the global pandemic. In 2019, 80% of Canadians took pride in the economy, five years later it has seen a 46-point decline. 

“The numbers outline a severe institutional crisis for the current federal government, one that will not be easily eradicated with just slogans and platitudes,” Canseco wrote about what Research Co. discovered in its latest annual survey.

“Confidence in Parliament slipped drastically, along with perceptions on multiculturalism, bilingualism, and the state of democracy in Canada. When the finances of Canadians are negatively impacted, it is hard to feel good about everything else,” Canseco added. 

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