Canadians feeling good about government and country, survey finds

A new survey out of Nanos Research shows that the majority of Canadians are remarkably happy with the performance of the federal government and the general direction of the country, despite economic issues that should have us feeling low.

The survey was conducted by Nanos Research for Policy Options magazine, which is run by The Institute for Research on Public Policy. The survey is conducted randomly by telephone– 100 people in Atlantic Canada, 250 in Quebec, 300 in Ontario, 200 in Praries and 150 in British Columbia.

“Well, the Nanos IRPP survey was based on 1,000 Canadians. It was conducted between December 18th and 21st, just before Christmas, and is accurate 3.1 percentage points– 19 times out of 20,” said Nik Nanos– Chairman of Nanos Research.

“This is actually a 9-year tracking study.. we do this study with the IRPP every December. We ask Canadians about the performance of the federal governement, federal-provincial relations, and a number of other issues.”

Nanos said that 60% of Canadians rated the performance of the new Liberal government as good or very good. That’s a record in the nine years the annual survey has been conducted.

“When we ask them about the performance of the federal government– about 6 out of every 10 Canadians rated it at very good or good…this is much higher than the Harper government’s ratings that they received over the last eight years. The majority of the Canadians also feel that the country is moving in the right direction.”

More surprisingly given present economic woes, Canadians are almost as bullish on the general direction of the country. Sixty-three percent said Canada “is moving in the right direction”– only a hair below the 66% who said the same in 2007, when the economy was booming.

“The last time people we’re feeling a little more positive was actually in 2011– which happened to coincide with the Conservative’s victory. I think what this shows us, is that Canadians atleast tend to be a bit grumpier when there is not an election… after an election, they seem to be more optimistic and hopeful about what they expect for the upcoming year.”

Nanos said he’d be surprised if the liberal’s numbers stay the same though.

“Usually what happens is that when new governments start to govern and do things– they start to usually repel voters and their numbers go down. I expect for the liberals’ that this is a high, and that their numbers will slide on performance and a number of other things as they get into the nitty gritty of trying to govern.”

Nanos will conduct the survey again next December.