Canadians React To Tsunami Disaster

Toronto, ON - As Canadians try to come to grips with the largest natural disaster in recorded history a new Ipsos-Reid survey shows that despite criticisms from the opposition about the way in which the Government responded to the catastrophe, a very strong majority of Canadians (79%) approve of the way the Prime Minister and his government have responded to the tsunami disaster on behalf of Canadians.

And further, after considering that the "Canadian Federal Government has pledged $80 million dollars in aid to tsunami-hit countries, has deployed Canada's Disaster Assistance Response Team, and is introducing fast tracked immigration to Canada for sponsored family members from the affected regions" most Canadians (71%) feel that the Canadian Federal Government is "doing just the right amount", while 21% feel they "should be doing more" and 4% feel they "should be doing less".

But many Canadians are hopeful that the government will more widely open up the country's borders to immigrants from the tsunami-affected regions. Specifically, when considering the government's recently stated offering of fast-tracked immigration to those in the tsunami-affected regions that have family members here in Canada: Half (52%) of Canadians say they think "the government should allow only those with family sponsors a fast-tracked opportunity to come to Canada", but a substantial minority of four in ten (42%) say "a much larger group of people from the region should be allowed to immigrate to Canada on humanitarians grounds regardless of whether or not they have family sponsorship".

The tsunami disaster has certainly captured the attention and strong concern of the Canadian public. One in five Canadians (22%) say they feel "overwhelmed" and 50% say they feel "deeply concerned" when they are asked about their reaction to what has happened as a result of the tsunami disaster. Eight in ten Canadians (83%) say that they have been following the developments of the tsunami disaster closely.

And in response to this disaster, many Canadians (37%) have given to a registered charitable organizations to help with tsunami disaster relief, and many more Canadians (32%) say they expect to make a donation in the future. But 28% of Canadians have not and do not expect to donate to a charity for tsunami disaster relief.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/ CTV/The Globe And Mail poll conducted from January 4th to January 6th, 2004. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1000 adult Canadians were interviewed by telephone. 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 weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data. Please open the attached PDF to view the complete factum and detailed tables.

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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