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poll results proportional representation

Poll results on Canadian public support for proportional representation

For many years, polls have showed a strong majority of Canadians (around 70%) believe that the portion of seats a party wins in the House of Commons should reflect the portion of the votes they receive.

For example, polls showed this in 2001, 2002, 2004, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2017, 2019 and 2020.

2020

Leger conducted a poll in September 2020 that found 76% support proportional representation.

2019

Angus Reid conducted a poll in November 2019 of 1965 Canadians that found strong support for proportional representation (69%) across party lines and provinces.

2017
The Strategic Directions polls represent what is probably the largest stand-alone polling effort to date on proportional representation in Canada. Polling took place in two stages. The first stage involved 15,806 respondents in riding-by-riding polls in 20 Liberal-held ridings across the country. This was followed by a national poll released on June 1, 2017, covering 4,971 randomly selected residents from across the country to ensure a more representative sampling of voter responses.

Results from this polling exercise were remarkable for the extent of support for electoral reform that is observed in all regions of the country and across all political persuasions. The question was asked in four different ways to test if the result depended on the wording of the question, but all questions yielded approximately the same result. 71% support proportional representation. 

2012 & 2013

A Forum Research poll October 27, 2012 showed this is still true: 70% of decided voters approved of proportional representation.

An Environics Survey conducted in March, 2013, found 70% support, 18% oppose, “depends” 6%, don’t know 6%. Environics asked “Some people favor bringing in a form of proportional representation. This means that the total number of seats held by each party in Parliament would be roughly equivalent to their percentage of the national popular vote. Would you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose moving towards a system of proportional representation in Canadian elections?”

2010

A poll on proportional representation was conducted by Environics Research between February 22 and 24, 2010. It found that 68% of Canadians support “moving towards a system of proportional representation (PR) in Canadian elections” (as a percent of decided respondents.)

Question #1 asked in the Environics Research poll was:

There has been some discussion about reforming the electoral system in Canada. Some people favour bringing in a form of proportional representation, which means that seats in parliament would be apportioned according to the popular vote won by each party, instead of the current system of electing MPs from single-member ridings. Would you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose moving towards a system of proportional representation in Canadian elections?

Strongly support: 23 per cent
Somewhat support: 38 per cent
Somewhat oppose: 15 per cent
Strongly oppose: 13 per cent
Don’t know: 10 per cent

The results represent the findings of a telephone survey conducted among a national random sample of 1,001 adults comprising 501 males and 500 females 18 years of age and older, living in Canada. The margin of error for a sample of this size is +/- 3.10 percent, 19 times out of 20.

2004

A Vector Research poll found 64% support changing to a PR system.

2004

The 2004 Portraits of Canada, from the Centre for Research and Information on Canada, reported that 71% of Canadians support distributing legislative seats proportionally according to the share of votes received in an election. Quebecers (76%) show greater support levels than Canadians in the rest of Canada (69%) when it comes to distributing legislative seats according to the overall proportion of votes received by each party in an election. Albertans (65%) are least supportive of this potential option for change.

Also, 74% favoured allowing smaller parties to win representation in legislatures.

2002

Decima Research polled 1,920 voters. Leaving aside 10% undecided, 71.4% supported PR, while 28.7% opposed it.

2001

Ipsos-Reid interviewed a representative national sample of 1,000 adult Canadians by telephone. 64 per cent of Canadians believe that Canada’s electoral system should award seats in Parliament in proportion to the popular vote received by each party, which is of course the definition of PR.

When asked to choose between a system which produces strong majority governments and a system which gives each party a number of seats in proportion to its popular vote, Canadians choose the latter system by a margin of 60 per cent to 36 per cent.

When asked directly whether Canada’s electoral system should be changed to provide PR in the House of Commons, the majority of Canadians (59 per cent) say yes. Thirty-eight per cent say no.

 

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