Most Canadians think the federal government should invest in infrastructure to spur on the economy and create jobs.
But their support for running deficits in order to invest is shaky at best.
According to an Ipsos poll conducted for Global News, 89 per cent of Canadians agree (40 per cent strongly / 50 per cent somewhat) that governments should invest in public infrastructure so they can create jobs and spur on the economy during an economic downturn.
Sixty-eight per cent think governments should go into a deficit in order to do so. But of them, only 24 per cent strongly agree, while 44 per cent ‘somewhat’ agree.
“They still want to see those investments but they aren’t nearly as likely to bank the future on them,” Mike Colledge, president of Ipsos Public Affairs in Canada said during an interview Wednesday morning.
While there are some people who are willing to support deficit spending, Colledge says the poll results show that Canadians aren’t worried about one-time investments, but rather permanent deficits.
Get daily National news
“They know they can’t run deficits forever in their households. They intuitively know they can go into debt to make major purchases… people get that, but they also know that at some point they need to wipe out the credit card bill,” he said. “Our history with governments has been, often they don’t, they became systemic deficits where they just get deeper and deeper.”
The Canadian government ran a surplus in 2014 for the first time since 2009, posting a $1.9-billion surplus. The Liberals have put themselves on an island this election, and are the only party of the Big Three promising to push the economy into deficit in order to invest in public infrastructure.
And the Liberals are leading, though by a narrow margin, in the latest Ipsos poll. Public opinion doesn’t directly translate to seats though, and the Liberals are still in third in the latest seat projections.
The Canadian economy is currently in a recession though bouncing back with two straight months of economic growth.
Despite that, people are worried about their livelihood and that might be influencing their support for infrastructure spending, according to Ipsos. Fifteen per cent of Canadians say they, or someone in their household, is worried about losing their job. Seven per cent say they know someone who has lost their job – a percentage close to the national unemployment rate.
Job anxiety is highest in Alberta (23 per cent are worried about their job) where the sudden drop in oil prices has been a drag on the local, and national, economy.
“A good number of Canadians are starting to see the impact of economic downturn in their neighbourhoods,” Colledge said.
The numbers are lower in other provinces and regions; only 14 per cent of Ontario residents are worried, while only nine per cent of British Columbians are.
Exclusive Global News Ipsos polls are protected by copyright. The information and/or data may only be rebroadcast or republished with full and proper credit and attribution to “Global News Ipsos.” The poll includes a sample of 1,005 Canadians interviewed online and was conducted between Sept. 22 and Sept. 25, and is accurate to within +/- 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all eligible voters been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population.
Comments