Canadians Say New PQ Leader Bernard Landry Is Greater Threat To Unity

Toronto, ON - The results of an Ipsos-Reid/CTV poll released today show that in the wake of Bernard Landry's recent acclamation as the new leader of the separatist Parti Quйbecois in Quйbec a plurality (47%) of Canadians say that he poses a greater threat to national unity than did his predecessor Lucien Bouchard. This includes a quarter (23%) who say that Landry poses a "much greater threat" and a similar number (24%) who say that he poses a "somewhat greater" threat. One-third (34%) of Canadians say that Landry poses a smaller threat to national unity than Bouchard, with 11 percent who say he poses a "much smaller" threat and 24 percent who say that he poses a "somewhat smaller" threat. Only 6 percent say that Bernard Landry poses "the same" threat and 12 percent say they "don't know".

• Quйbecers are no more or less likely than residents of other provinces to say that Landry poses a bigger or smaller threat to national unity.
• Men (39%) are much more likely than women (30%) to say that Landry poses a smaller threat than Bouchard.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/CTV poll conducted between March 8th and March 10th, 2001. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 803 adult Canadians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 3.5 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 1996 Census data.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice President
Public Affairs
Ipsos-Reid
(416) 324-2900