Political Risk & Climate Action
For Canadian politicians, it’s riskier to ignore climate change than it is to propose solutions. By Bruce Anderson Twenty years ago, when the world’s leaders were debating the Kyoto Accord, a case could be made that politicians who chose to be early champions of action to reduce emissions were running a certain amount of political
Canadian Political Leaders: The midpoint reset
By Bruce Anderson & David Coletto Halfway between the 2015 and the 2019 elections and with two new opposition party leaders, it’s a useful moment to take stock of what people know and perceive about the three individuals leading Canada’s largest political parties. Here are the highlights: Mr. Trudeau is obviously better known than his
Confidence in Canadian Polling
By Bruce Anderson & David Coletto In a considerable number of recent voting experiences, in Canada and in other jurisdictions, questions have been raised about the accuracy of polls, and the professionalism of pollsters. In our latest nationwide study, we decided to take a look at confidence in polling has held up, asking questions about
Sexual Harassment of Women is Widespread in Canada
By Bruce Anderson There are almost 15 million adult women in Canada and according to our latest survey, almost 8 million of them (53%) have experienced unwanted sexual pressure. The prevalence of this experience is highest among women under 45. Just over one in ten Canadians says sexual harassment is “really quite common” in theirUniversities, Research & Canadian Public Opinion
By Bruce Anderson Commissioned by Universities Canada, Abacus undertook a nationwide survey looking at how Canadians feel about the role of universities today and in the future. The highlights of this study are detailed below. The large majority (78%) of Canadians express a positive overall feeling towards universities, with only 3% expressing a negative view.
More Expect U.S. to Take Military Action Against North Korea than the Reverse, 84% Say Trump Making Things Worse
By Bruce Anderson & David Coletto A solid majority (63%) of Canadians are following the tensions between North Korea and the US closely. As of the taking of our latest poll (August 11-15) 43% thought it likely that North Korea would launch a missile at the US, 47% that North Korea would launch missiles at
Parties as Brands: How Canadians See the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP
By Bruce Anderson, David Coletto In our latest nationwide survey, we wanted to see what thoughts and images were more associated with Canada’s three largest political brands. To do this, we offered people a series of 20 forced choices, far from an exhaustive list of possible variables, but enough to observe some powerful differences. This
What Abacus Does: Assessing the Dynamics of Issues Environments
By: Ihor Korbabicz ‘What Abacus Does’ is a companion piece to some of the public facing opinion research we post. It looks at the research through a practical lens and gives a sneak peek into the type of work we do to unearth the strategic implications and “so what” of our data for clients, causes
Newspapers in Peril?…Canadians Unworried
By Bruce Anderson & David Coletto For the last few years, there have been clear signals that Canada’s newspaper industry is struggling and some newspapers may end up in bankruptcy. In our most recent survey, we asked a few questions to get a sense of how people are feeling about this. Here’s what we found:
Globalism and Nationalism in Canada
By Bruce Anderson & David Coletto Around the world political behaviour is influenced by attitudes about economic development, globalization and trade, and immigration. The election of Donald Trump, support for Brexit, and far-right movements in France and other European countries is often linked to concerns about globalization of trade and political control as well as
