Drugs In Canadian Sport

Toronto, ON - On the heels of a positive drug test of a Canadian sprinter at the World Track and Field Championships held in Edmonton, Alberta, four in ten (37%) Canadians say that compared to ten years ago, they are "less confident" when an elite amateur athlete in this country wins a competition that the athlete is totally drug-free. This, despite drug doping regulations and testing undertaken by governments and regulatory bodies in this country since the Ben Johnston scandal at the 1988 Olympics.

These are the findings of a CTV/Globe and Mail poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid between August 8th and August 12th. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians. 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 1996 Census data.

In the poll, Canadians surveyed were read the following question: "As you may have heard, a female Canadian sprinter at the world track and field championships in Edmonton has tested positive for using a banned drug. Governments and regulatory bodies have undertaken many initiatives on this front since the Ben Johnson scandal at the 1988 Olympics. Now, suppose that an elite amateur athlete in this country wins a competition. Compared to how you felt ten years ago, how confident are you that this victorious Canadian athlete is totally drug-free?" Four in ten (37%) say that they are "less confident" than ten years ago, while a plurality (34%) say "about the same" and one-quarter (26%) say "more confident".

• Regionally, half (49%) of Albertans say that they are "less confident" than ten years ago, followed by BC (43%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (41%) Quebec (37%), and Ontario (36%). Atlantic Canada (21%) is least likely to say that they are "less confident" that an elite amateur athlete in this country is totally drug-free if they win a competition, while nearly half (47%) say that they feel "about the same" as ten years ago.
• Women (40%) are slightly more likely than men (35%) to say that they feel "less confident" that a victorious Canadian athlete is totally drug-free.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

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