Coffee Talk audio -

A new survey published by the Institute for Research on Public Policy and Nanos Research asked Canadians to rate the importance of a series of policy changes to Canada’s future on a scale of 1-10. 

Top spot with a score of 9 out of 10 was keeping the country’s health care system strong. Job creation came in second with an importance rating of 8.7. Tied for third at 8.4 was investing in education and ensuring safe communities.  However, while Canadians were clear about the issues that are most important to us, we were also pretty clear about the doubts we have that elected officials will be able to solve them.  Out of those surveyed, people were twice as likely to say they did not have confidence in governments’ ability to solve issues of national concern as to say they were confident.  It gets worse.  Only 7% were confident in the ability to find solutions to issues facing their province compared to 24% who said they were not confident. When asked if Canada had gotten better or worse at creating solutions to issues of concern, about 32% said worse compared to just under 19% who said better. Issues deemed the most important such as health care, the aging population and living standards, received the lowest scores in people’s confidence in finding solutions. If I was a politician, I would take a long, sober look at these findings and then start thinking about how to raise Canadians confidence that we can find ways to improve our future outlook on the issues that matter most to people.

That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.