Monday, September 05, 2005

Public opinion: a crude analysis

Leger Marketing releases a poll with remarkable results:
In the Leger poll, which was provided to The Canadian Press, 49 per cent of respondents wanted petroleum resources nationalized while 43 per cent said they would like to see the same fate for gas companies.

Quebecers were the strongest supporters of resource nationalization at 67 per cent, followed by residents of the Atlantic provinces at 53 per cent, Ontarians at 45 per cent and British Columbia at 42 per cent.

Forty per cent of respondents on the Prairies and 36 per cent of Albertans were in favour. Among those opposed, Albertans led the way at 49 per cent followed by British Columbians at 39 per cent...

Seventy-six per cent of respondents indicated they would like the government to intervene after recent gas hikes preceeding Katrina. Fifty-four per cent suggested they would like the government to fix the pump price.

Now, I don't agree with nationalization as a strategy (though hanging onto the federal government's Petro Canada shares would have been a good idea). And directly regulating prices is a potentially dangerous action which shouldn't be moved toward without very compelling reason to believe that there won't be serious unintended consequences.

But based on the poll, many or most members of the Canadian public favour major interventionist measures which haven't received a significant amount of press or discussion. And it isn't strictly a regional issue either - even in Alberta, a substantial minority backs nationalizing the province's strongest industries. Rather than Ontario against Alberta, the bigger faultline is between the public at large and the political sphere.

It's clear from the poll that the traditional "we can't do anything" line isn't resonating with the public. And when the public so obviously believes that something needs to be done, that view provides a platform from which to encourage more government action toward reducing our oil dependency.

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