The 2003 Annual Dominion Institute Canada Day Poll: The Report Cards Are In

Toronto, ONTARIO - The Annual Canada Day Poll, released today by the Dominion Institute and conducted by Ipsos-Reid, this year measures Canadian's knowledge of Canada's participation in world organizations and events since World War II. The results of the 10-question quiz are in: half (50%) of Canadians passed and half (50%) failed.

In general, residents of Alberta (60%), British Columbia (57%) and Ontario (56%) are more likely to pass the quiz than are the residents of Atlantic Canada (45%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (40%) or Quebec (39%).

The questions were developed by the Dominion Institute and Ipsos-Reid in consultation with four of Canada's most respected historians. The results are released today by the Dominion Institute and are published in the Canada Day edition of The Globe and Mail.

Overall, one in five (18%) Canadians received a mark of `A' or higher on the quiz. The top grade of `A++' (10 out of 10) was scored by just 2% of Canadians, while 6% receive a grade of `A+' (9 out of 10) and one in ten (10%), a grade of `A' (8 out of 10). On the opposite end of the results, half (50%) of Canadians receive a failing grade of `F', including one in twenty (7%) who were unable to provide a single correct response. One in ten receive grades of `B' (10% - 7 out of 10), `C' (10% - 6 out of 10) or `D' (11% - 5 out of 10).

Canadians were most likely to be able to identify landmines (77%) as the military weapon that during the 1990's Canada, along with celebrities such as Princess Diana, rallied much of the international community to ban, while just one in ten (10%) were able to name the International Criminal Court as the new international body for investigating genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes that Canada recently played a major role in the establishment of.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/Dominion Institute/Globe and Mail poll conducted between June 10th and June 12th, 2003. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,055 adult Canadian. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadians population according to the 2001 Census data.

As noted above, half (50%) of all adult Canadians were able to pass the quiz consisting of 10 questions on Canada's participation in a number of international organizations events since World War II, with the remaining 50% failing the quiz.

• In general, residents of Alberta (60%), British Columbia (57%) and Ontario (56%) are more likely to pass the quiz than are the residents of Atlantic Canada (45%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (40%) or Quebec (39%).

• As well, while a majority (55%) of Canadians 35 years of age or older passed the quiz, just four in ten (38%) young adults received a passing grade.

• While six in ten (59% versus 42% of women) men received a passing grade, an equal proportion of women (58% versus 41% of men) failed the quiz.

• Three-quarters (72%) of university graduates passed, compared to just one in two (51%) of those with some university or other post-secondary education, one in three (32%) of Canadians with just a high school diploma and just one in four (25%) of Canadians without a high school diploma.

• Two-thirds (63%) of Canadians from upper income households received a passing grade, while an equal proportion (63%) of those from lower income households failed the quiz. Canadians from middle-income households are as equally likely to have passed (49%) as to have failed (51%) the quiz.

When asked to name two international military operations or peacekeeping missions that Canada has participated in since 1990, four in ten (41%) are able to provide two correct answers, while 29% are able to provide one correct response.

• Three in ten (31%) were unable to provide a correct response. As for the correct responses provided, the top answer was Bosnia /Yugoslavia (40%) followed by Afghanistan (28%), the Gulf War (14%), Kosovo (11%), Somalia (8%), Rwanda (5%), Haiti (1%), and the Congo (1%).

To view the individual quiz results please open the attached PDF release.

Some interesting findings:

• British Columbians (91%) are more likely than are residents of Ontario (82%), Atlantic Canada (76%) or Quebec (58%) to be able to identify landmines as the military weapon that Canada rallied the international community to ban in the 1990's.

• While Quebecers are among the least likely to receive a passing grade on the quiz, there is one question they did better on than residents in other regions. One in three (32%) Quebecers are able to correctly identify the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the UN declaration which sets froth the basic rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons that Canada was instrumental in drafting, compared to the residents of Alberta (19%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (18%) and Ontario (13%).

• While in general, men are able to answer more of the questions correctly, men and women are statistically equally as likely to correctly identify landmines (men 77%; women 77%); two international military operations that Canada has participated in since 1990 (men 43%; women 38%); the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the UN declaration which sets froth the basic rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons that Canada was instrumental in drafting (men 24%; women 19%); and the International Criminal Court as the new international body for investigating genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes that Canada has played a major role in establishing (men 12%; women 9%).

• Men are more likely than women to correctly identify questions regarding Canadian military involvement such as the Korean War as the Cold War military conflict that Canada took part in between 1950 and 1953 (men 72%; women 58%); the invasion of France as the best description of D-Day (men 60%; women 47%); and NATO as the multilateral military organization that Canada has belonged to since 1949 (men 53%; women 37%).

• As mentioned earlier younger adult Canadians were least likely to pass the quiz, with the biggest gap between this group and their older counterparts on the question of the South African government policy that Canadian Prime Ministers up to Brian Mulroney led international opposition to. While 57% of Canadians 35 and older are able to cite apartheid or racial segregation as the policy, just one in three (34%) Canadians between 18 and 34 are able to do so.

• However, younger adults are statistically as likely to be able to identify the United Nations as the body Canada helped to found in the aftermath of World War II to promote international peace and security (young adults 46%, middle aged 50%, older 51%); the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as the UN declaration which sets froth the basic rights and fundamental freedoms of all persons that Canada was instrumental in drafting (young adults 21%, middle aged 24%, older 18%); and the International Criminal Court as the new international body for investigating genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes that Canada has played a major role in establishing (young adults 8%, middle aged 11%, older 12%).

To view the release and detailed tables please open the attached PDF documents.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:
John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900