Religion Alive And Well In Canada

Toronto, ON - Today six in ten Canadians (62%, essentially unchanged from 63% in 1996) believe that "through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God provided the way for the forgiveness of sins", according to one of the many findings of a new Ipsos Reid poll conducted in both Canada and the United States in the week leading up to the Easter Holiday.

The survey, conducted on behalf of CanWest News Service/Global News shows that many Christian beliefs among Canadians have remained largely unchanged from 1996 to today. But while these Christian beliefs are holding their ground in Canada, some appear to have weakened slightly in the United States from 10 years ago.

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for CanWest News Service/Global News. For the survey, a representative sample of 814 adult Canadians, and 768 adult Americans were interviewed via telephone, from April 11th-12th, 2006. The sample used in this study has been weighted according to Census data to accurately reflect the population of both countries. With a sample of this size, the results for both countries are considered accurate to within 1773.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population of each country been polled. The margin of error will be larger within each sub-grouping of the survey population. 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:

Andrew Grenville
Senior Vice-President
Ipsos Reid
(416) 416.526.6055.