Six in Ten (59%) Canadians Unaware of Tory 2006 Election "In-and-Out" Scheme
The Conservatives are currently in court fighting a ruling by Elections Canada that they broke election laws by skirting national campaign-spending caps by transferring money to local campaigns to purchase national advertising. With the Liberals wanting the "ballot question" to be the ethics of the Harper government, this is one of their key ingredients but the research shows that while the issue has relatively low awareness among the Canadian public it has the potential for some political traction.
Just four in ten (41%) Canadians say they have heard something about Conservative Party officials being charged by Elections Canada for something called an "in-and-out" scheme related to buying political advertisements in the 2006 campaign. Conversely, a majority (59%) of Canadians say they have not heard anything about this issue.
British Columbians (53%) are most likely to say they've heard of the "in-and-out" scheme, followed by those living in Alberta (45%), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (41%), Ontario (41%), Atlantic Canada (37%) and Quebec (33%). Those over the age of 55 are most likely (55%) to have heard of this scheme, followed by those aged 35 to 54 (41%) and 18 to 34 (23%). Men (48%) are significantly more likely than women (33%) to be aware of this issue.
Among the 41% of Canadians who have heard of the scheme, six in ten (59%) believe it's a `major issue that requires a lot more attention than it's getting at the moment' while four in ten (38%) are closer to the opinion that this is `just an administrative matter that really isn't a big deal'. Three percent (3%) of those who are aware of it don't know what to think about it.
This means that one quarter (24%) of Canadians are aware of the issue and think it needs more of an airing compared to the remaining three quarters on the public (76%) which is either unaware (59%) or, if they know of it, don't think it's a big deal (15%), and 1% don't' know.
Interestingly, Quebecers who are aware of it are by far the most likely (77%) to believe it's a big deal, followed by those living in Ontario (56%), Atlantic Canada (56%), British Columbia (55%), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (51%) and Alberta (48%). Further, among those aware of the scandal, younger Canadians (71%) are more likely than middle-aged (57%) or older (55%) Canadians to think it's a big deal, and women (67%) are more likely than men (53%) to think so as well.
These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of Postmedia News and Global Television from March 7-9, 2011. For the survey, a representative randomly-selected sample of 1,002 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 population of Canada been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure that the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to Census data. 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:
Darrell Bricker
CEO
Ipsos Public Affairs
(416) 324-2001
[email protected]
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