Canadians Disapprove Of The Canada Pension Plan's Investment In Tobacco Companies

Ottawa, ON -- A new Ipsos-Reid survey shows most Canadians agree that the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) should not be investing in tobacco companies. The poll shows that Canadians disapprove of the CPP's investment in companies that produce and sell tobacco products.

Survey findings indicate that by a margin of 2 to 1 (52% agree versus 26% disagree) Canadians believed the CPP should not invest in companies that produce and sell tobacco products. An even larger margin of almost 3 to 1 (58% agree versus 21% disagree), agree that it is hypocritical for the federal government to promote anti-smoking programs while investing in tobacco companies.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid poll conducted on behalf of the Canadian Medical Association between October 15th and 18th, 2004. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 753 adult Canadians (with the exception of Quebec). With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.6 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 Canadian population according to the 2001Census data.

Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

Mike Colledge
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(613) 241-5802