A B.C.-based polling firm says their latest poll shows a majority of Canadians now believe the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is behind them.
According to Research Co., this is the first time they have conducted a poll weighing COVID-19 opinions that showed this new positive outlook.
55 per cent of those surveyed think the worst of the pandemic is now behind us, which is an increase of eight points since Research Co.’s previous survey in March.
On the other hand, 27 per cent of Canadians think the worst of the pandemic is still to come, a figure that has dropped six points from March.
Overall satisfaction with the pandemic response of various levels of government has softened, with most provinces seeing a slight erosion in in positive numbers.
B.C. continues to see fairly strong levels of support for the provincial government’s response, with 62 per cent saying they are either “very” or “moderately” satisfied, down three points from March.
Just over half of Canadians (51 per cent) are satisfied with how the federal government has managed the pandemic, unchanged since March.
The lowest levels of support are found in Ontario, with 42 per cent satisfied, and Alberta, with 34 per cent satisfied.
In Alberta, those “very dissatisfied” even exceeds the combined number of those “very” and “moderately” satisfied,” with 38 per cent “very dissatisfied.” A further 26 per cent are “moderately dissatisfied.”
Respondents in B.C. expressed the highest level of confidence among the provinces for establishing public health guidelines (66 per cent), while those in Alberta has the lowest level of confidence (45 per cent).
Results are based on an online study conducted from May 17 to May 19, 2021, among 1,000 Canadian adults. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region. The margin of error—which measures sample variability—is +/- 3.1 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.
