A poll commissioned by the ruling federal Conservative government last August but released only last week, shows Canadians are angry with politicians.
The poll was conducted by the Leger marketing firm for the Privy Council, the Prime Minister’s own advisory group.
The poll involved a telephone survey of some 3,000 Canadians and 12 focus groups across the country including one in French.
It asked Canadians about the economy, pipelines, and telecom regulations, but the “Senate Scandal” involving allegations of spending abuse by Senators dominated the poll.
The poll found that Canadians felt strongly that their tax money was being used for politician’s personal benefit, and that the practice may be widespread in politics. Respondants contrasted the apparent lush lifestyle of politiciasn and alleagations of spending abuse of the public’s money, while they personally were struggling to make ends meet.
Canadians seemed further frustrated by the alleged spending abuse by Senators because very few could explain or understood what Senators do on a daily basis, nor the Senate’s role in the Parliamentary system.
The report notes, “Recent allegations regarding misspending were perceived as a sign that more accountability was needed for all use of public money,”
The results may be behind the governments stronger subsequent stand against the Senators involved.
In other issues, Canadians expressed cyncisim over telecom deregulation saying Canada’s big players were interested in limiting foreign presence in Canada as a way to protect themselves from lowering prices.
They also felt more visible action was needed on job creation and boosting the economy,
On the pipeline question, most found pipelines were safer than rail transport of oil, and they favoured the idea of a pipeline to ship Western oil to eastern Canada
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