As rumblings of a possible federal election continue across the country, a new poll has found that, for the first time since the start of COVID-19, the pandemic is no longer the top issue on most Canadians’ minds.
The new Ipsos polling, done exclusively for Global News, comes as provinces continue their reopening efforts and cases of COVID-19 continue to decrease nationally.
2:06 Polls: Conservative support crumbling in Western Canada
Polls: Conservative support crumbling in Western Canada
According to the poll, the current top-of-mind issues Canadians are now thinking about the most are healthcare, affordability and cost of living, climate change and the economy — largely remaining the same from two years ago.
And while the poll now points to the same big box issues now facing Canadians coming back to the forefront in a post-COVID-era, Ipsos’ CEO of Public Affairs Darrell Bricker says that the absence of COVID-19 from country’s top worries comes as quite a surprise — especially ahead of a possible federal election coming just around the corner.
“I think a lot of strategists were thinking that the government’s performance during COVID would be the big feature element of this campaign,” said Bricker, who described the return back of other issues as the “important pushing of the urgent.”
“Right now what we’re finding is that what was previously urgent is now being displaced by what was previously most important.”
2:07 Canada’s migrant workers protest, press for immigration changes
Canada’s migrant workers protest, press for immigration changes
The issue of COVID-19 now stands as the fifth most important problem for Canadians, with taxes, housing and poverty rounding out the latter half of the top ten, according to the poll.
Other issues on Canadians’ minds include unemployment, government deficit, and seniors’ and Indigenous issues — the latter of which Bricker points to as probably coming to the forefront now amid the recent discoveries of unmarked burial sites at former residential schools.
The poll also asked Canadians which issues they found as the most influential in their vote choice, and found that the Liberals were seen as the best party to tackle three of the top five most important issues to them — healthcare, climate change and COVID-19.
22:12 Global National: Jul 24
Global National: Jul 24
“The issues that have been coming up, it’s a bit more of a mixed bag,” said Bricker. “Health care, the Liberals lead on, but it tends to be a bit of a nonpartisan issue.
“Nobody thinks anybody’s great on health care and the reason is because they don’t think that anybody really has a plan that will completely reassure them, so I think emotionally, people think that the Liberals would do a better job.”
As for the topic of COVID-19 as an issue for voters, the Liberals have a “commanding” lead, with 40 per cent perceiving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government as the most competent to handle the pandemic, and all other parties lagging more than 20 points behind.
The Liberals have an eight point lead over the NDP when it comes to tackling healthcare, while the party is nearly tied with the Greens at 27 per cent.
4:16 Liberal lead softens ahead of possible election
Liberal lead softens ahead of possible election
Among Canadians that say the economy is the main issue influencing their vote, the Conservatives hold a healthy eight point lead over the Liberals at 35 per cent.
Bricker says that that lead has got to be “problematic” for Trudeau’s Liberals.
“Because as we move out of the urgent set of issues and we start moving on to the important … they’re eight points behind on the economy,” said Bricker.
“That has to be concerning for the campaign planners.”
For this survey, a sample of 1,001 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed online. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Canadian population according to census parameters. 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 Canadians aged 18+ been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
