A new poll suggests that the majority of Canadians believe they will eventually contract COVID-19.
The poll from the Angus Reid Institute, released Thursday, found that 55 per cent of Canadians expect to get COVID-19 eventually, regardless of the precautions they take. The percentage rises to 63 per cent among parents of children in grade school.
Regionally, 64 per cent of Manitobans believe they will catch COVID-19 eventually, while just 37 per cent of people in Saskatchewan believe they will catch the virus.
Some health officials do agree that there’s a chance most Canadians will catch COVID-19 at some point.
In March 2020, then Health Minister Patty Hajdu said upwards of 70 per cent of Canadians could become infected with the virus. More recently, Newfoundland and Labrador Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Janice Fitzgerald said she also believed it’s inevitable that most people in her province will get COVID-19 at some point.
“I know we all feel that we are done with COVID, but COVID is not quite done with us,” she said at a provincial briefing in early January. “Living with COVID means celebrating the good days and summoning all our grit and strength to persevere through the bad days.”
According to CTVNews.ca daily COVID-19 tacker, more then 2.6 million Canadians have already contracted COVID-19, including nearly 33,000 new cases on Wednesday.
Given the sense of inevitability surrounding COVID-19 infections in Canada, a relatively high number of Canadians believe all COVID-19 restrictions should end and those at risk can manage themselves.
In total, 39 per cent of Canadians believe Canadians should end restrictions, while 62 per cent of Conservative voters and 89 per cent of unvaccinated people believe it’s time to remove restrictions.
Florida and Texas are two of the notable areas that have already taken this approach to handling the pandemic. More than 10 million people have contracted COVID-19 in both states combined, along with nearly 140,000 deaths, according to tracking data from Google.
BEGINNING OF THE END?
The poll also found that few Canadians believe the pandemic will be over in 2022.
Nationally, just 23 per cent of Canadians believe the pandemic will end in 2022, while those in Saskatchewan are most optimistic at 28 per cent. On the other hand, those in New Brunswick are the least optimistic that Canada is close to the end of the pandemic, at just 14 per cent.
When comparing the responses to the respondents vaccination status, 32 per cent of unvaccinated people believe that the pandemic will end in 2022, while 20 per cent of those with the booster believe the pandemic is nearly over.
TORONTO – Ontario is pushing through several bills with little or no debate, which the government house leader says is due to a short legislative sitting.
The government has significantly reduced debate and committee time on the proposed law that would force municipalities to seek permission to install bike lanes when they would remove a car lane.
It also passed the fall economic statement that contains legislation to send out $200 cheques to taxpayers with reduced debating time.
The province tabled a bill Wednesday afternoon that would extend the per-vote subsidy program, which funnels money to political parties, until 2027.
That bill passed third reading Thursday morning with no debate and is awaiting royal assent.
Government House Leader Steve Clark did not answer a question about whether the province is speeding up passage of the bills in order to have an election in the spring, which Premier Doug Ford has not ruled out.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
