Of Government's List Of Five Priorities, Canadians Rate "Patient Wait Times Guarantee" At The Top

Toronto, ON- According to a new Ipsos Reid survey conducted for CanWest/Global News, of the five priorities that the Conservatives have said they will be focussing their government, "work with the provinces to establish a Patient Wait Times Guarantee" is chosen by the largest percentage of Canadians as the priority that the government should focus on "first" (28%) and the one they should "spend the most time on" (29%).

When it comes to the government's role in dealing with child care, most Canadians are of the opinion that in order to help families cope with expenses of raising children the government should "pay employers and communities to create child care spaces in the workplace or through co-operative or community associations" (54%) versus 39% who believe the government should "give families $1200 per year for each child under six to pay for whatever childcare arrangement they feel is appropriate for their child". Seven percent "don't know" which of these opinions is closer to their own.

• Support for a co-operatively funded child care system is highest in Saskatchewan/Manitoba (65%) and Atlantic Canada (60%).
• Support for giving families a $1,200 credit to choose which child care arrangement they want is highest in Quebec (44%) and Alberta (41%), and among residents of rural regions (50%), men (44%), and those with less than a high school education (46%).

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for CanWest News Service/Global News and fielded from February 14th to February 16th, 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. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data.

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:

Dr. Darrell Bricker
President & COO
Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900