The Supreme Court Hearings and Sovereignty in Quebec
THE SUPREME COURT HEARINGS
Calling into question the Government of Canada's request for the Supreme Court to Render a Decision
In total, 62% of Quebecers say they disagree with the Government of Canada's decision to ask the Supreme Court's advice on whether the Quebec National Assembly could unilaterally declare Quebec independence following a referendum. Another 36% of Quebecers say they agree with Ottawa's actions, while 2% did not have an opinion. (See Acrobat version for detailed charts and tables.)
Quebecers divided on who should participate in drafting the referendum question, the majority needed to declare independence and respecting the eventual Supreme Court decision.
When asked who should participate in drafting the question in the event of a possible referendum on sovereignty, 44% of the participants said "the Quebec government should decide on its own", while 53% said "both the Quebec government and the Government of Canada should decide together what the referendum question should be". (See Acrobat version for detailed charts and tables.)
Quebecers are divided 49% to 49% in terms of agreeing or disagreeing with the following statement: "I think that a simple majority of 50% plus one in favour of Quebec sovereignty is enough to declare Quebec independent". (See Acrobat version for detailed charts and tables.)
In total, 57% of respondents agreed with the statement "Whatever the advice of the Supreme Court, the Quebec government should follow that advice", while 40% would disagreed. (See Acrobat version for detailed charts and tables.)
A population interested in the Hearings?
In total, 67% of respondents said that they had "heard or seen" something about the Government of Canada's request to the Supreme Court, while 33% confessed to not having heard anything about it.
In terms of their interest towards these hearings, 55% of respondents said they were very or somewhat interested, while 45% admitted they were not very or not at all interested by the hearings.
REFERENDUM VOTING INTENTIONS
If a referendum were held at the end of February on Quebec sovereignty accompanied by a partnership with the rest of Canada, 49% of decided voters would have voted YES, while 51% would have voted NO (1% would not vote, 3% did not know et 2% refused to answer). At a referendum on Quebec independence, 34% of Quebecers would vote YES, while 66% would vote NO (1% would not vote, 3% did not know and 2% refused to answer). (See Acrobat version for detailed charts and tables.)
This Angus Reid Group study was conducted from February 24 to March 1. In total, 1000 Quebec households were interviewed.
The data is statistically representative of the distribution of the Quebec population in terms of geography, linguistics and demographics.
With a sample of this size, the results presented here are representative of the Quebec population by ±3.1%, 19 out of 20.
For more information on this news release, please contact:
Christian Bourque
Senior Director of Research
Angus Reid Group
(514) 877-5550
