Canadians Shrug Off Nation Status Issue

Toronto, ON - Canadians are largely reacting to the recently introduced and approved motion by the Conservative Party government which defines the Quebecois as "a nation within a united Canada" with apparent indifference, according to a new Ipsos Reid survey conducted on behalf of CanWest/Global News.

In fact, only a minority of Canadians (42%) agree that "Stephen Harper did the right thing for Canada by introducing" the resolution (16% strongly feel this way). And a full two-thirds (66%) do not believe the resolution will "help bring Canada closer together".

But while most Canadians question the value of the Parliamentary resolution, it doesn't appear as though it has riled the public's ire, as most (58%) say that they are not angry about it being voted on and passed in The House of Commons.

Furthermore, a majority (59%) disagree with the statement that "I'd be more likely to vote for a Liberal Party leader in the next election who opposes the resolution to recognize the Quebecois as a nation within a united Canada".

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for CanWest News Service/Global News and fielded from November 28-29th, 2006. For this survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1000 adult Canadians was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the aggregate results are considered accurate to within 1773.1 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 each sub-grouping of the survey population.

Canadians Shrug Off Nation Status Issue ...
I'm now going to read you statements about federal political issues. For each one, I'd like you to tell me if you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree or strongly disagree:

Regionally...

For more information on this news release, please contact:
Darrell Bricker
President and COO
Ipsos Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900

For full tabular results, please visit our website at www.ipsos.ca. News Releases are available at: http://www.ipsos-na.com/news/