D'oh Canada! Survey reveals Canadians barely understand political system
Canadian Press
Published Sunday, December 14, 2008
TORONTO ? D'oh Canada! We hardly know you.
The prime minister is not our head of state. We are not a representative republic. We do not elect our prime minister directly.
A new survey for the Dominion Institute taken in the aftermath of this month's political crisis in which the word "prorogue" was dusted off political science textbooks suggests a woeful ignorance when it comes to our system of government.
For example, results of the Ipsos Reid survey show 75 percent of Canadians asked believe the prime minister, or the Governor General, is head of state. Bzzzz ? wrong.
It's actually the Queen.
Only 24 percent managed to answer correctly, according to the poll provided exclusively to The Canadian Press.
Marc Chalifoux, executive director of the Dominion Institute, said he decided to commission the survey in light of the furor caused when a coalition of opposition parties threatened to topple Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government.
Harper's defensive strategy was to ask Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean to prorogue, or shut down, Parliament until late in January to avoid what likely would have been a vote of non-confidence.
With such unfamiliar words such as "treason" and "coup d'etat" entering the Canadian political lexicon, Chalifoux said he wanted to gauge the understanding people had of what had transpired.
"Canadians certainly were interested by what was going on in Ottawa, but lacked in many cases the basic knowledge to form informed opinions," Chalifoux said.
"We found a lot of ignorance."
The institute drew up four basic questions:
? Who is the head of state?
? How can Canada's system of government best be described?
? Do Canadians elect the prime minister directly?
? Can the governor general can nix a prime minister's request for a new election?
"These questions we're asking aren't just trivia," Chalifoux said.
"These are part of the basic tool kit of knowledge that citizens need to function in a democracy."
Given a choice how best to describe the system of government, 25 per cent decided on a "co-operative assembly" while 17 per cent opted for a "representative republic."
Canada is neither.
Only 59 per cent correctly picked constitutional monarchy.
In a similar vein, 51 per cent wrongly agreed that Canadians elect the prime minister directly.
In fact, Canadians elect local members of Parliament and the leader of the party with the most members by tradition becomes prime minister at the request of the governor general.
"Our school system needs to be doing a better job of training young people to be citizens," Chalifoux said.
One question that did elicit close to unanimous agreement was about the Governor General's power to refuse to call an election at the request of a prime minister who no longer enjoys majority support in the House of Commons.
A full 90 per cent responded ? correctly ? that the Governor General does have the power, which Jean may yet be called on to wield if the opposition coalition does defeat the government with a vote in the Commons.
Overall, the survey found the lowest levels of knowledge in Quebec ? 70 per cent of Quebecers, for example, wrongly believe Canadians directly elect the prime minister. Only 35 per cent of Atlantic Canadians made that mistake.
The survey of 1,070 Canadians done Dec. 9-12 is said to be accurate to within 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
Canadian Press
Published Sunday, December 14, 2008
TORONTO ? D'oh Canada! We hardly know you.
The prime minister is not our head of state. We are not a representative republic. We do not elect our prime minister directly.
A new survey for the Dominion Institute taken in the aftermath of this month's political crisis in which the word "prorogue" was dusted off political science textbooks suggests a woeful ignorance when it comes to our system of government.
For example, results of the Ipsos Reid survey show 75 percent of Canadians asked believe the prime minister, or the Governor General, is head of state. Bzzzz ? wrong.
It's actually the Queen.
Only 24 percent managed to answer correctly, according to the poll provided exclusively to The Canadian Press.
Marc Chalifoux, executive director of the Dominion Institute, said he decided to commission the survey in light of the furor caused when a coalition of opposition parties threatened to topple Prime Minister Stephen Harper's minority Conservative government.
Harper's defensive strategy was to ask Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean to prorogue, or shut down, Parliament until late in January to avoid what likely would have been a vote of non-confidence.
With such unfamiliar words such as "treason" and "coup d'etat" entering the Canadian political lexicon, Chalifoux said he wanted to gauge the understanding people had of what had transpired.
"Canadians certainly were interested by what was going on in Ottawa, but lacked in many cases the basic knowledge to form informed opinions," Chalifoux said.
"We found a lot of ignorance."
The institute drew up four basic questions:
? Who is the head of state?
? How can Canada's system of government best be described?
? Do Canadians elect the prime minister directly?
? Can the governor general can nix a prime minister's request for a new election?
"These questions we're asking aren't just trivia," Chalifoux said.
"These are part of the basic tool kit of knowledge that citizens need to function in a democracy."
Given a choice how best to describe the system of government, 25 per cent decided on a "co-operative assembly" while 17 per cent opted for a "representative republic."
Canada is neither.
Only 59 per cent correctly picked constitutional monarchy.
In a similar vein, 51 per cent wrongly agreed that Canadians elect the prime minister directly.
In fact, Canadians elect local members of Parliament and the leader of the party with the most members by tradition becomes prime minister at the request of the governor general.
"Our school system needs to be doing a better job of training young people to be citizens," Chalifoux said.
One question that did elicit close to unanimous agreement was about the Governor General's power to refuse to call an election at the request of a prime minister who no longer enjoys majority support in the House of Commons.
A full 90 per cent responded ? correctly ? that the Governor General does have the power, which Jean may yet be called on to wield if the opposition coalition does defeat the government with a vote in the Commons.
Overall, the survey found the lowest levels of knowledge in Quebec ? 70 per cent of Quebecers, for example, wrongly believe Canadians directly elect the prime minister. Only 35 per cent of Atlantic Canadians made that mistake.
The survey of 1,070 Canadians done Dec. 9-12 is said to be accurate to within 3.1 percentage points 19 times out of 20.
