Three in Ten (27%) Canadians Will Attend a Remembrance Day Ceremony This Year, 23% Said they Went Last Year

Toronto, ON - Three in ten (27%) Canadians say that they will attend an official Remembrance Day service on November 11th this year, an increase over the 23% who said they attended one last year, according to a new Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of The Vimy Foundation.

There has been a great deal of attention placed on the sacrifice of Canadian soldiers recently, given the tragic killings of Corporal Nathan Cirillo and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent on Canadian soil. Despite this, the 27% of Canadians who say they will attend a ceremony this year is down from the 30% who, in 2012, said they would attend.

There is presently a bill before Parliament that would make Remembrance Day a national statutory holiday. The poll shows that most (82%) Canadians would support November 11th being made holiday (down 3 points since a similar poll conducted in 2012), while just 18% would not (up 3 points).

While most Canadians won't be attending an official service this year, eight in ten (77%) say that they will observe two minutes of silence at 11 o'clock on November 11th (down 3 points), and an equal proportion (77%, down 5 points) are wearing a poppy in the lead up to Remembrance Day.

Honouring Canada's Fallen...

The data show that some Canadians are more likely than others to remember Canada's fallen in various ways:

• Those in Alberta (41%) and Atlantic Canada (39%) are most likely to say they will attend an official ceremony, followed by those living in British Columbia (31%), Ontario (31%), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (20%) and Quebec (9%).
• Atlantic Canadians (94%) and Ontarians (90%) are most likely to say they will observe two minutes of silence at 11 o'clock on November 11th, followed by those in British Columbia (76%), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (74%), Alberta (71%) and Quebec (55%).
• Atlantic Canadians (94%) and British Columbians (90%) are most likely to say they're wearing a poppy in the lead up to November 11th, followed by those living in Ontario (87%), Alberta (83%), Saskatchewan and Manitoba (79%) and Quebec (43%).
• Atlantic Canadians (94%) and residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba (94%) are most likely to support Remembrance Day being made a national holiday, followed by a majority of those in British Columbia (88%), Ontario (84%), Alberta (81%) and Quebec (71%).

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted between November 5 and 7, 2014 on behalf of The Vimy Foundation. For this survey, a sample of 1,008 Canadians 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, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadian adults 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:

John Wright
Senior Vice President
Ipsos Reid
Public Affairs
(416) 324-2002
[email protected]

About Ipsos Reid

Ipsos Reid is Canada's market intelligence leader and the country's leading provider of public opinion research. With operations in eight cities, Ipsos Reid employs more than 600 research professionals and support staff in Canada. The company has the biggest network of telephone call centres in Canada, as well as the largest pre-recruited household and on-line panels. Ipsos Reid's Canadian marketing research and public affairs practices are staffed with seasoned research consultants with extensive industry-specific backgrounds, offering the premier suite of research vehicles in Canada--all of which provide clients with actionable and relevant information. Ipsos Reid is an Ipsos company, a leading global survey-based market research group. To learn more, visit www.ipsos.ca

About Ipsos

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