See additional content on Richard's Substack
In 2017, assisted dying, that is the ability to request that a physician provide help in ending the life of a person with an incurable disease became legal. Much like changes to same-sex marriage and prostitution, this was a major policy change that was significantly driven by the courts (Carter v. Canada). Public opinion moved…
Public polls tell us a lot about what is on the minds of Canadians. Or at least what media and other elites think should be on the minds of Canadians. Almost four in ten 2019 polls were about public policy (37%) and another third were about electoral, horserace issues. Not surprisingly, Q3 and Q4 contained…
As the initial volleys of a trade war are exchanged it is worth considering the potential consequences of Trudeau’s need to balance out maintaining public support with achieving positive outcomes from our trade and other bi-lateral issues. Lets face it, the more the public expects Trudeau to be tough the harder it might be to…
The expansion of the Kinder Morgan or Trans Mountain pipeline [the name itself has potentially different connotations] has been effectively hijacked and turned into political theatre over the past few months. Overall Canadians support the expansion and, importantly, the B.C. government’s position is not fully aligned with public opinion. What then, would we expect of…
Trump’s threat to cancel NAFTA and the series of negotiations that the threat spurred, has been one of the most important issues facing Canada. In 2017, it was the most polled issue in 2017 and Canadians believe in trade, or at least that is what they tell pollsters. And the attention to NAFTA has helped Canadians…
![[Feature] Tax That! Many Canadians Would Support Small Business Tax Changes](https://pollingguru.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/tax_calculator-768x513.jpg)
The small business tax changes introduced by the Canadian Government were a communications and policy failure that required significant back-tracking by the government. In simple terms, the government sought to restrict income splitting and to prevent individuals from using the tax benefits of corporations to save and grow assets. While the overall message of tax…
![[Feature] Same sex marriage became majority opinion](https://pollingguru.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Same-sex-marriage-768x512.jpg)
The evolution of Canadian beliefs about same-sex marriage provide an interesting example of dramatic changes that both presupposed and reacted to court decisions. Although history seems like an inevitable march toward granting and accepting same-sex marriage, in 1999 a federal vote maintained the traditional definition of opposite sex relationships. While courts and Parliament were extending the…
