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Background
Western Canada - British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba - is Canada's second largest region and an important contributor to Canada's economy, society and culture. Like all Canadian provinces, western provinces are grappling with the need to manage the opportunities and challenges that accompany globalization while maintaining and promoting prosperity, high standards of living and quality of life. At the same time, there is continued concern about the representation of the West in federal institutions, and concern about feelings of western alienation. To decide the future strategic directions of the West, it is important that the views and opinions of western Canadians be fully considered. For this reason, Canada West conducted one of the largest public opinion surveys of western Canada ever, covering a wide range of public policy issues.
Looking West: A Survey of Western Canadians provides an overview of the survey questions, noting key provincial, demographic and partisan variations in responses. The report concludes by considering some of the key questions raised about western Canada, dispelling some common myths and recognizing important realities.
Key Findings
- Western Canadians see the West as a distinct region: eight in ten agree that the West is different from the rest of Canada.
- Western Canadians report high levels of alienation from the federal government. Although alienation levels vary according to partisanship (as measured by federal vote), province and age, the survey found high alienation across all these categories. Alienation was not found to be a rural issue; alienation levels are high even in large urban areas.
- There is relatively high support across the West for a number of institutional reforms, including Senate reform and electoral reform.
- Western Canadians feel that increased global trade has been good for Canada, and rank public education, high-tech industries and lower taxes as high priority tools to increase the region's global competitiveness.
- There are important variations in mobility expectations across the western provinces, with Saskatchewan young people (aged 18-24) reporting particularly high levels of anticipated mobility. Respondents also varied considerably in expectations for the future of their provinces, with Alberta respondents quite optimistic that their province will be better off in five years, British Columbia respondents relatively optimistic, Manitoba respondents rather neutral, and Saskatchewan respondents pessimistic.
Implications for Policy Development - It makes sense to think of the West as a region: on most public policy issues, there is consistency in opinion across the four western provinces, and western Canadians themselves perceive the region as distinct.
- The high levels of reported alienation suggest a serious problem for Canadian federalism. This matter should be a concern to the federal government, which should make a concerted effort to ensure that western Canadians feel engaged in the federal system. A failure to do so could result in increased alienation, political disengagement and growing political apathy.
- The survey indicates that the western Canadian public is ready to engage in discussions of institutional reform and political representation. These are issues that should be given serious policy debate at all levels of government.
- Western Canadians are supportive of global trade and interested in a number of government tools to increase regional global competitiveness. Governments should consider both economic policy and social policy as factors for the West's global positioning.
- The high mobility expectations of young people in Saskatchewan and, to a lesser extent Manitoba, raise concerns about the future economic viability of these provinces and about growing disparities between the western Canadian provinces. Western Canadians should begin to consider "brain drain" in interprovincial terms.
Methodology
The Building the New West survey is based on a random sample telephone survey of western Canadians 18 years of age or older. The survey was administered to 3,256 respondents between January and March 2001 by Accord Research on behalf of the Canada West Foundation and the University of Calgary Research Unit for the Study of Civil Society (RUSCS). Funding support for the survey administration was provided by RUSCS through a Donner Canadian Foundation grant, and support for the survey analysis was provided in part by Alberta International and Intergovernmental Affairs.
To allow for statistically significant analyses of each western province, as well as the West as a whole, a relatively large sample was used for each province. Overall, the sample includes 812 interviews from British Columbia, 814 from Alberta, 813 from Saskatchewan and 817 from Manitoba. There is 95% certainty that the survey results are within +/- 1.7% accuracy. For province-specific analysis, there is 95% certainty that the results are within +/- 3.4% accuracy. In the presentation of aggregate regional data, a weighting adjustment factor was applied to match each province's sample weight to its portion of the regional population 18 years of age and over.
Author
Looking West: A Survey of Western Canadians was written by Dr. Loleen Berdahl, Canada West Foundation Director of Research.
Author(s): Dr. Loleen Berdahl
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