TORONTO – Where is it better to live? In Canada or the United States? Canadians have no doubts: in their own country. This is what emerges from a survey carried out by Abacus between 11 and 17 July on a sample of 1,500 adults. The result is overwhelming: only 1 in 10 Canadians think it would be better to live in the United States. For 91%, Canada is better. And this “feeling” is quite consistent in all the provinces of the country.
In particular, to doubt (that is, that very narrow 9% of respondents) that Canada is better are men under 45, conservative and no-vax voters.
The authors of the research asked Canadians how they thought their lives would change if they lived in the US, taking into consideration four different aspects: crime, health care, economic security and entertainment. Well, the majority of respondents think Canada is better than the United States in all four respects.
In Canada there is less violence in the streets (74%, while for 18% “there is no difference” between Canada and the US), better health care is guaranteed (67%, for 16% “there is no difference”), you are better off financially (41%, for 32%” there is no difference”) and you enjoy life more (38%, for 38%” there is no difference”). Other than an American dream! For the same aspects, in fact, life is better in the US according to 8% of Canadians (violence), 17% (health), 27% (financial conditions) and 23% (entertainment).
Only a minority, we said, think completely differently. Specifically, younger men think they would be better off financially and enjoy life more if they lived in the United States. Conservative voters, in turn, have another opinion about health care: only 60% of them believe it is better in Canada, and only a third of them think that Canada is a better place to earn money, to live and to enjoy life. The no-vaxes also represent a “world apart” from the majority of Canadians: only half of this group, in fact, think that living in Canada means being safer from violence or enjoying better health care than the United States. And many of them also think they would be better off financially and enjoy life in the US more.
“Many Canadians – explain the authors of the research, Bruce Anderson and David Coletto – have witnessed with growing concern the transformations that have taken place in the United States in recent years and, according to them, the United States is going in a bad direction. The envy of the American dream is not really evident or, at least, the envy of the American reality is not. It is interesting – they add – to note that those who tend to think that life in the United States is better than in Canada are young, male, conservative and no-vax: it is not difficult to imagine that the message of greater ‘freedom’ coming from the United States influences somehow this group of people … “.
The complete research is here: https://abacusdata.ca/canada-us-which-is-better/
Photo by chris robert on Unsplash
