A new poll says public opinion on the political response to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is deeply divided, with those polled split evenly on the question of how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has handled the emergency.
The poll, conducted by the Angus Reid Institute in partnership with CBC, found that 48 per cent of Canadians say Trudeau has done a “good” or “very good” job during the pandemic so far.
Another 48 per cent said Trudeau has done a “bad” or “very bad” job.
Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute, said the findings appear to confirm what many Canadians have already learned about the political divide exposed by the pandemic.
“Sometimes it’s a confirmation of a trend … it just tells us where we are as a country,” she told CBC News.
Among those who said Trudeau has performed poorly, 31 per cent said he’s handled the pandemic very badly — twice the number of respondents who said he’s done a very good job.
Four per cent of respondents said they didn’t or couldn’t say how well Trudeau has performed.
The responses were collected through an online survey conducted from March 1 to 4 on a representative randomized sample of 2,550 Canadians 18 and older who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Fifty-six per cent of respondents said Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam has done a good job during the pandemic, while 34 per cent said she has done poorly.
Responses split sharply along party lines
Opinions about Trudeau’s performance were most sharply divided on party lines, with Conservative voters voicing overwhelming dissatisfaction and Liberal supporters offering overwhelmingly positive impressions.
Among Conservatives, 84 per cent said Trudeau has done a bad or very bad job, while 88 per cent of Liberals said the prime minister has done a good or very good job.
Among NDP voters, 67 per cent said Trudeau has done well. Bloc Québécois supporters offered a more negative assessment — 62 per cent of them said Trudeau has done badly.
Trudeau’s performance was rated most negatively in Alberta and Saskatchewan, where 45 per cent of respondents said he has done a “very bad job.” Canadians in the Atlantic provinces and British Columbia were most satisfied with Trudeau’s performance.
Trudeau and the Liberal government have implemented numerous measures meant to slow the pandemic over the past two years, including the closure of international borders and the enforcement of vaccine mandates for some travellers and federal workers. The federal government was also responsible for procuring vaccines.
Canadians in the Prairies least satisfied with their premiers
Provincial governments and premiers were responsible for most of the restrictions introduced during the pandemic, including the closure of schools and businesses, the enforcement of indoor gathering limits and vaccine mandates, and the distribution of vaccines.
Atlantic Canadians were the most satisfied with their premiers, with seven out of 10 saying their premiers have done well during the pandemic.
The Atlantic provinces have experienced consistently lower case numbers than anywhere else in Canada, something attributed to precautions implemented in that region — including the Atlantic Bubble, which restricted interprovincial travel.
Outside of the Atlantic provinces, B.C. has recorded the fewest number of cases and deaths per 100,000 residents in Canada. Six out of 10 B.C. residents said they were satisfied with Premier John Horgan.
Manitoba and Alberta residents were the least satisfied with their premiers.
Nearly eight out of 10 in Manitobans said Premiers Brian Pallister and Heather Stefanson have done badly.
Seven out of 10 Albertans gave Premier Jason Kenney a failing grade. Kurl said in an interview that Kenney consistently angered “a really significant constituency of Albertans” by repeatedly adjusting his approach to the pandemic.
“For Kenney in particular, what we saw is he had almost the reverse Midas touch,” Kurl said of the results. “Almost every other premier struck a little bit of grace or found a little bit of extra understanding.”
Respondents in Ontario and Quebec were more evenly divided, with a slim majority of Ontarians saying Premier Doug Ford has done a bad job and a majority of Quebecers (57 per cent) saying Premier François Legault has done well.
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.
