A new poll by the Angus Reid Institute says seven out of 10 Canadians don’t care about a politician’s religion at the voting booth, but they aren’t too sure about their friends and family.
The BC Civil Liberties Association doesn’t necessarily see that 70 per cent as a civil rights victory.
The study gauged how Canadians feel about voting for the new federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, a baptized Sikh.
Singh won the federal New Democratic Party leadership last weekend, becoming the first Sikh to lead a major Canadian political party.
BCCLA President Lindsay Lyster says the poll shows prejudice is still a factor for a good segment of the population.
“If in fact it shows that three out of 10 Canadians would be unprepared to vote for a person because they were a person of colour or because they wore a turban, I think it really shows that we’ve still got a lot of work to do to overcome racism.”
Lyster says it’s one of the reasons why a new human rights commission is needed.
“One of the central functions that a human rights commission can perform is really being at the forefront of educating Canadians and uncovering the racism that can sometimes lie just beneath the surface, studying those issues, and attempting to help people move forward in terms of their views.”
About half of the poll’s respondents say they believe some or most of their friends and families could not vote for someone like Singh.
More than 1400 people across the country responded to the online poll.
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