Quebecers Outline Priorities for Next Government

Toronto, ON - On Monday evening Quebecers will know who their Premier will be and which party will occupy the government benches. A new Ipsos Reid poll conducted for CTV News asked Quebecers what the priority of the next government should be, regardless of who ends up winning the election. While the election campaign was fought primarily on the Values Charter, the prospect of a referendum and integrity, none of these issues rise to the top of the new government's potential agenda list.

In fact, what Quebecers want are bread and butter issues to lead the way as the top, roll up the sleeves and get to work priorities of the next government when they get back to work.

The primary choice indicates that three in ten (28%) believe the next government's agenda should be led by creating a better economy and jobs, easily outflanking any other issue. Next on the list is providing better healthcare (17%), ensuring debt repayment and balancing the budget (12%), lowering taxes (11%), ensuring integrity in government and its leaders (9%) and fighting corruption (6%).

Interestingly, while the start of the election campaign was fought on the merits of the Charter of Values, just 4% of Quebecers believe implementation of the Charter of Values should be the number-one priority for the next government.

Priority issues for others include protecting the environment (3%), education funding and support (2%), bringing energy costs down (2%), ensuring maintenance of road infrastructure (2%) and investing in public transportation (1%). Four percent (4%) say some other issue should be the top priority for the next government.

The entry of PKP into the race focused the campaign on the prospect of another referendum under a PQ government. Interestingly, just 1% of Quebecers feel that holding a referendum for independence/sovereignty should be the top priority of the next government.

No finer point could be put on this than to show the combination of what those in Quebec choose as their primary and secondary issues for their new government to focus on with a new agenda. The top four are creating a better economy and jobs (41%), followed by providing better healthcare (36%), ensuring debt repayment and balancing the budget (24%) and lowering taxes (23%)--a decidedly different script than what the electorate has been fed during the election campaign. In fact, if anything, the agenda looks almost identical to any other provincial priority list in the country.

The chart below outlines the percentage of Quebecers who believe that each issue should be the top priority and second priority, with the two summed together.

(Click to enlarge image)

When examining the top priority for the next government among respective party vote, the data reveal supporters of every party most want the economy to be the number-one priority of the next government, but to varying intensity: Liberals voters (40% say economy is tops), CAQ (26%), PQ (24%) and Solidaire (21%).

Next highest on the top-priority list for Liberals is providing better healthcare (18%), but PQ supporters are just as likely to name integrity (14%) as healthcare (14%). For CAQ supporters, next to strengthening the economy is lowering taxes (24%), but Solidaire voters also agree that healthcare (15%) is next on the list, followed by the environment (11%).

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted between March 28th and April 1st, 2014 on behalf of CTV News. For this survey, a sample of 1,012 Quebecers from Ipsos' Canadian online panel was interviewed online. Weighting was then employed to balance demographics to ensure that the sample's composition reflects that of the adult population according to Census data and to provide results intended to approximate the sample universe. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within +/- 3.5 percentage points had all adults in Quebec been polled. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

Luc Durand
President, Quebec
Ipsos
514.904.4344
[email protected]

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