6 in 10 Canadians Concerned With Potential Bird Flu Outbreak

Toronto, ON - With most experts predicting that the Avian Flu virus (H5N1) could hit North America by this fall, and with the Quebec government actually urging its citizens to start "stocking up" provisions in advance of a potential pandemic, a new survey by Ipsos Reid for CanWest Global indicates that 6 in 10 (60%) Canadians are concerned about the virus and approximately 1,000,000 are already stock-piling such items as cash, food, water and medicine as a precaution and another 27% are thinking about doing so. Most (69%) however indicate that they'll wait until a Bird Flu epidemic actually happens to decide what to do. In the interim, Canadians show almost unanimous views that preventive measures as applied to business', humans and pets be put in place--including court ordered quarantines and criminal charges for violation, relaxed business sick leave provisions for employees and the destruction of pets that may be exposed to the virus.

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted from March 17 to 20, 2006 via a regionally representative online Canadian sample of 1,621 adults. With a sample of this size, the results can be considered accurate 95% of the time with a 1772.5 margin of error, of what it would have been had this entire population been surveyed. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the latest Census data.
B>Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

-30-

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Dr. Glenys Babcock
Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 572-4418