Is Canada Really Broken, Or Is It Just Winter

Jeff Green | Feb 08, 2023

Most Canadians pay scant attention to the fortunes of federal political parties when there is no obvious federal election on the horizon, but of course that does not stop the parties from jockeying for position.

The Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, has become fond of saying, “it feels like everything is broken in Canada now,” implying that the current Prime Minister is mostly, if not solely, to blame, for this negative feeling.

Not to be outdone, the National Post sponsored a poll.

It asked two questions.

It asked if people agreed or disagreed with the statement that “it feels like everything is broken in this country right now” and 67% said they agreed.

It asked how people were “feeling right now" when thinking how Canada is being managed today, and offered two options, “happy or angry”, not “happy or unhappy”, not “happy or sad”, not even “calm or angry”, but the odd conjunction of “happy or angry.”

41% per cent of respondents were either somewhat happy (37%) or very happy (4%) 

50% said they were either somewhat angry (30%) or very angry (20%) and 9% did not know if they were happy or angry.

The polling company, Leger, is a reputable outfit, so far be it from me to question their methodology, but the use of feelings in both of the questions is curious.

Pierre Poilievre set this up, because he has been saying “Canada feels broken” which is not open to any kind of test, based on data or any kind of real measure.

If I bring my car to the shop and say “I feel like it is broken” my mechanic will have a hard time knowing how to fix it.

Leger doubled down on feelings, asking how people feel about how the country is being managed, asking people how they feel when thinking how Canada is managed today.

They could have asked “Do you think Canada is well managed, yes or no” which would be clear, instead they asked whether people feel happy or angry when they think about how Canada is being managed.

But more than all the fuzzy language, making me question whether this survey was really commissioned to see what Canadians think, there are other interesting aspects to it.

First off, it was an online survey of 1554 people, selected from Leger's online panel of 450,000 web users, that have been vetted according to different demographic variables.

Secondly, and most importantly, the survey was conducted between January 20 and 22.

If you ask Canadians how they 'feel' about anything on January 20, and find that most of them think “everything is broken” and that they are more likely to be “angry” than “happy” about their governments, is it really a surprise?

I don't know about anyone else, but late January is not my happiest time of year.

It is cold and grey in late January, in this country, and spring is a long way off. 

If the same survey were taken on July 20, would as many people “feel like everything is broken?”

Maybe not.

People can make what they want of this National Post/Leger marketing survey, but I can't help but have my suspicions about surveys that ask people how they feel instead of what they think, any time of year, but especially in January.

The Conservative Party, and the National Post, have a clear agenda to promote the idea that the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau is a spent force, and the Conservatives are going to take over after the next election.

That future will on that front.

As for this recent survey for the National Post, it may not be completely broken, however, like Canada, it is certainly chock full of flaws.