Canadians' Views On Trade Agreements:

Toronto, ON - A new Ipsos-Reid survey conducted on behalf of the Council of Canadians reveals that six in ten Canadians (62%) disagree with the statement "the Canadian government should sign a new international trade agreement with the World Trade Organization that makes Canada's public services, such as healthcare and education, open to competition from foreign corporations".

A further six in ten Canadians (60%) disagree with the statement "the Canadian government should sign new trade deals that allow corporations to directly sue the Government of Canada if our public policies impair their ability to make profits".

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/Council of Canadians poll conducted from March 30th to April 1st 2004. For the telephone survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1000 adult Canadians was 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 statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.

Six in ten Canadians (62%) disagree with the statement "the Canadian government should sign a new international trade agreement with the World Trade Organization that makes Canada's public services, such as health care and education, open to competition from foreign corporations" (42% "strongly disagree", 20% "somewhat disagree"). In contrast, one third of Canadians (35%) agree with this statement (12% "strongly agree", 22% "somewhat agree"). A very small proportion of Canadians (3%) "don't know".

• Disagreement with the statement "the Canadian government should sign a new international trade agreement with the World Trade Organization that makes Canada's public services, such as health care and education, open to competition from foreign corporations" is highest in British Columbia (74%), followed by Ontario (68%) and Atlantic Canada (68%), Alberta (64%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (61%). Residents of Quebec (46%) are significantly less likely than others to disagree with this statement.

• Canadians adults over the age of 34 are significantly more likely than those aged 18-34 to disagree with this statement (65% vs. 55%).

• Canadians with some university education, a college diploma, or a university degree, are significantly more likely than those with a high school diploma or less to disagree with this statement (67% vs. 52%).

• Those Canadians with an annual household income of $30,000 or more are more likely to disagree with this statement than are those with an annual household income of less than $30,000 (66% vs. 51%).

A further six in ten Canadians (60%) disagree with the statement "the Canadian government should sign new trade deals that allow corporations to directly sue the Government of Canada if our policies impair their ability to make profits" (36% "strongly disagree", 24% "somewhat disagree"). However, 36% of Canadians do agree with this statement (12% "strongly agree", 24% "somewhat agree"). The remaining 4% of Canadians "don't know."

• Disagreement with the statement "the Canadian government should sign new deals that allow corporations to directly sue the Government of Canada if our public policies impair their ability to make profits" is highest in Ontario (68%), followed closely by British Columbia (67%), Alberta (65%), Atlantic Canada (64%), and Saskatchewan/Manitoba (61%). Residents of Quebec (40%) are significantly less likely than all others to disagree with this statement.

• Canadians adults over the age of 34 are significantly more likely than those aged 18-34 to disagree with this statement (63% vs. 51%).

• Canadians with some university education, a college diploma, or a university degree, are significantly more likely than those with a high school diploma or less to disagree with this statement (65% vs. 47%).

• Those who have an annual household income of $60,000 or more are more likely than those with an annual household income of less than $60,000 to disagree with this statement (69% vs. 52%).

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:

Darrell Bricker
President & C.O.O
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900