Over 80% of Canadians would fail a citizenship test, new poll reveals

2019/07/03 Leave a comment

No real surprise. More Canada Day clickbait than serious:

To become a Canadian citizen, hopeful permanent residents must achieve a score of 75 per cent or higher on the Canadian Citizenship test.

However, a recent poll by Forum Research found that almost 90 per cent of Canadians would fail this test, and the average score among those polled was just 50 per cent.

According to the results, men, the country’s highest earners, post-graduate degree holders and residents of British Columbia are among the most likely to pass the test.

Survey respondents were asked a series of 10 questions, which included questions about the title of the royal anthem (often confused with the national anthem), who the Métis are, the year the Charter of Rights and Freedoms came to Canada and Canada’s head of state.

Canadians scored most poorly on questions about the title of the Royal Anthem of Canada, civic duties, and Canada’s head of state.

When asked about the title of the royal anthem, only 36 per cent correctly answered, “God Save the Queen,” while 56 per cent responded “O Canada,” and six per cent said it was the Star Spangled Banner.

Respondents were also given a list of official responsibilities Canadian citizens have and were asked to select which item was not an official responsibility. Only 26 per cent correctly responded “driving safely.”

Lastly, over 80 per cent of respondents did not know that the Queen Elizabeth II remains Canada’s head of state to this day

Areas where respondents seemed to know their Canadian trivia included Canadian geography, the English translation of the word “Inuit,” and the significance of the Canada Pacific Railway (CPR).

In the former, 63 per cent of respondents were able to identify that the Midwest is not a Canadian geographical region. In the latter, two thirds of respondents knew that the CPR, which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, is representative of unity.

Other questions on which respondents scored fairly well included the year the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was brought to Canada (1982), and identifying the founding peoples of Canada (Indigenous, French and British).

The Forum Poll™ was conducted by Forum Research with the results based on an interactive voice response telephone survey of 1645 randomly selected Canadians. The poll was June 25th -27th, 2019. Results based on the total sample are considered accurate +/- 3%, 19 times out of 20. Subsample results will be less accurate.

Source: Over 80% of Canadians would fail a citizenship test, new poll reveals

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Canadians favour screening would-be immigrants for ‘anti-Canadian’ values, poll shows

2016/09/12 Leave a comment

Not surprising. Similar levels of support for a ban on niqabs at citizenship ceremonies but in the end, not a deciding issues for the vast majority of voters:

Two-thirds of Canadians want prospective immigrants to be screened for “anti-Canadian” values, a new poll reveals, lending support to an idea that is stirring controversy in political circles.

Conservative MP Kellie Leitch, a candidate in her party’s leadership contest, has floated the idea of screening newcomers for their attitudes on intolerance toward other religions, cultures and sexual orientations and reluctance to embrace Canadian freedoms.

A new Forum Research Inc. poll for the Star shows that Leitch may be tapping into an idea that Canadians favour with 67 per cent saying immigrants should indeed be screened for “anti-Canadian values.”

More importantly for Leitch, the poll shows that the idea is especially popular among Conservative supporters with 87 per cent backing the idea and just 8 per cent opposed compared to 57 per cent support among Liberals and 59 per cent for New Democrat voters.

That’s certain to be the reason that Leitch (Simcoe-Grey) proposed the idea — and has stuck by it in the face of criticism, said Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research.

“If you’re going after the base, this is like red meat for them. They’re going to love this,” he said Friday. “This is hitting the nail right on the head.”

When asked to choose the values respondents believe are important, equality came out on top (27 per cent), followed by patriotism (15 per cent), fairness (12 per cent) and tolerance (11 per cent).

Conservative backers put patriotism at the top their list of important values. Liberals and New Democrats ranked equality as their first choice.

Just one-quarter of respondents disagreed with the idea of screening for values and nine per cent had no opinion.

The idea finds most support among those ages 45 to 64 (73 per cent); more men (70 per cent) than women (64 per cent); living in Quebec (71 per cent) and Ontario (70 per cent) than those in the Atlantic provinces (56 per cent).

Leitch raised the idea of screening would-be immigrants in a survey sent out by her campaign seeking input on issues.

Source: Canadians favour screening would-be immigrants for ‘anti-Canadian’ values, poll shows | Toronto Star

Filed under Immigration, Multiculturalism Tagged with , , ,