Voters favour key social issues
but not long gun registry
Legal prostitution, assisted
suicide, marijuana all win
TORONTO September 24th, 2015 - In a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum
Poll™ among 1557 Canadian voters, pluralities or majorities favour the
progressive position on all of a selection of hot button social issues, with
the exception of bringing back the long gun registry.
Assisted suicide most popular
As many as two thirds of voters think assisted
suicide should be legal (67%), and this attitude is common to younger groups
(35 to 44 - 73%), the wealthier ($80K to $100K - 76%), in Quebec (75%) but not
so much in the prairies (56%) and among the best educated (71%). New Democrats
favour legal assisted suicide (74%) more than Liberals (66%) or especially
Conservatives (58%).
Two thirds want retirement
age returned to 65
Two in three voters want the age for the Old Age
Supplement to be returned to 65 from 67 (65%) and this is common to the least
wealthy (less than $40K - 71%) and the wealthy ($80K to $100K - 71%). One half
of Conservatives agree (48%), as do two thirds of Liberals (69%) and three
quarters of New Democrats (74%).
Majority wants legalized
marijuana
More than one half of voters want to see
marijuana legalized (54%), and this is common to the youngest (64%), the least
wealthy (less than $20K - 60) and the wealthy ($80K to $10K - 60%), in BC
(63%), among Liberals (63%) and New Democrats (61%) and even among one third of
Conservatives (33%).
Plurality favour legal
prostitution
One half of voters think prostitution should be
legal (49%) and this is common to the youngest 55%), to males (59%) but not so
much females (40%), those in mid-income groups ($60K to $80K - 56%), everywhere
except the prairies (39%) and Alberta (45%) and among the best educated (post
grad - 56%). More than half of Liberals (58%) and New Democrats (54%) favour
it, as do more than a third of Conservatives (37%).
Plurality doesn’t want return
of long gun registry
In the only social issue that failed to gain
approval, about 4-in-10 voters want the long gun registry back in operation
(39%) and just more do not (44%). Wanting to see the registry back is common to
mid age groups and the oldest (45% each), females (42%), lower income groups
($20K to $40K - 44%), in Quebec (51%) but not in Alberta (26%), among mothers
of children under 18 (42%) and the best educated (52% post grad). While one
half of Liberals (49%) and New Democrats (50%) favour the idea, few Conservatives
do (17%).
Plurality would vote for
candidate who supported these issues
When asked if they would vote for a candidate
who supported each of these issues (legal prostitution, marijuana and assisted
suicide, return the retirement age to 65 and return the long gun registry),
that plurality say yes (45%), and among the youngest (53%), Quebeckers (50%),
in BC (51%), among Liberals (55%) and New Democrats (58%) and the best educated
(52%) this becomes a majority. Even one sixth of Conservatives would support this
candidate (16%).
“Adopting these five positions would seem to make
a candidate almost unelectably progressive in Canada but, as we can see, this
is not the case; there is perhaps a higher level of tolerance for social
innovation in this country than we are aware of," said Forum Research President, Dr. Lorne Bozinoff.
Lorne Bozinoff, Ph.D. is
the president and founder of Forum Research. He can be reached at lbozinoff@forumresearch.com
or at (416) 960-9603.
