Mar 2 2022 — Bruce Anderson — National Observer — The last time the Conservative Party of Canada won a federal election was just over 10 years ago. Stephen Harper’s party won 39.6 per cent of the vote and 166 seats. He benefited from an epic setback for the Liberals under Michael Ignatieff, who lost 43 of the party’s seats and finished third behind the […]
Sep 20 2021 — Bruce Anderson — Abacus Data — In case you feel you’ve had enough supremely confident predictions about what will happen in today’s election, rest easy, this won’t add to that total. Who turns out to vote in this unusual circumstance is not complete guesswork – our data and that of other firms are somewhat helpful, but there’s enough softness in that […]
Aug 27 2021 — Bruce Anderson — Maclean's — Having worked in several national elections, some for the Liberal Party, some for the Progressive Conservative Party, the polling I studied made one thing really clear—while it’s common to talk about the “base” as fundamental to electoral success, it’s really the swing voters that matter. Elections in Canada are won or lost by a margin […]
Aug 21 2021 — Bruce Anderson — Maclean's — If you had to describe—in one word—U.S. national elections today, you could do worse than settle on chaos. Efforts to limit voting rights, redrawing boundaries for political ends, casting doubts on voting technologies, decrying the honesty of electoral officials—is it any wonder that trust is shredded? America’s embrace of “….all men are created equal” is […]
Aug 11 2021 — Bruce Anderson — Maclean's — Compared to the vaccinated, the vaccine hesitant don’t have a lot of trust in government. They also try to avoid prescriptions, dislike putting anything unnatural in their bodies and say they are reluctant to take any vaccines. Most worry that COVID-19 vaccines haven’t really been tested for a long time.
Aug 10 2021 — Bruce Anderson — Abacus Data — In new public opinion research commissioned by the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, 3200 adult Canadians were interviewed by Abacus Data, between July 20th and 24th, 2021. Results show that Canadians tend to see our health care system as functioning in line with their expectations, with relatively better satisfaction regarding virtual care, access to […]
May 15 2021 — Bruce Anderson — Abacus Data — The latest tracking polling by Abacus Data shows that the number of people who are willing to be vaccinated is on the rise, and the number of people hesitant or refusing to take a Covid-19 vaccine is at a new low. Abacus has been providing data on vaccine opinions to a volunteer Task Group of […]
Apr 17 2021 — Bruce Anderson — Abacus Data — This week we completed a national survey of 1,981 Canadian adults (from April 9 to 14) with a series of questions on Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy. This work is being done as part of broad Task Group working to promote vaccine acceptance, under the banner “Faster. Together”. More information is included about this effort at the […]
May 25 2020 — Bruce Anderson — National Observer — If, like me, you grew up in the ’60s and ’70s, there were some things you could be sure of. Russia was powerful and menacing. China was mysterious, but “red” was definitely “bad.” Japan and Germany couldn’t be trusted. Britain was tradition-bound and stolid, all “keep calm and carry on.” The United States saw itself […]
Apr 15 2020 — Bruce Anderson — National Observer — It took social distancing to remind us how little divides us. Here in Canada, and it seems in some other parts of the world, the most worrying health and economic event in decades is helping us rediscover how much we depend on and need each other. We need each other to try to stay healthy, […]
Mar 12 2020 — Bruce Anderson — National Observer — Immigrants do get the job done. But is it a problem if not enough people know that? In the last couple of weeks, we at Abacus Data conducted some fresh public opinion research on this topic. Here’s what we found. When asked whether more or less immigration was the best way to grow the economy, […]
Feb 27 2020 — Bruce Anderson — Abacus Data — On behalf of the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, Abacus recently completed a nationwide survey of 1500 adult Canadians. The focus was to understand how Canadian adults feel about the policy choices that lie ahead for Ottawa on this file.
Jun 24 2019 — Bruce Anderson — National Observer — The two main factions in American politics are like slabs of granite — giant political structures that can’t move each other, seemingly stuck in place. All the excitement comes down to a multibillion-dollar fight to persuade a handful of voters in a handful of states. The rest of the noise is just the Hatfields making […]
Mar 13 2019 — Bruce Anderson — Abacus Data — Our most recent survey of attitudes towards a Canadian pharmacare initiative commissioned by the Canadian Life and Health Association (1,200 interviews, conducted between February 26 and March 3, 2019) reveals strong support for the idea of helping improve the affordability of medicine for those who have no drug insurance today, coupled with a broad desire […]
Oct 2 2018 — Bruce Anderson — Abacus Data — In our most recent national public opinion survey, we explored one of the most contentious topics in Canadian politics – oil – and found most people don’t find it all that contentious. When asked if they loved oil, hated oil, or “don’t have strong feelings about oil, it’s just a product that has some uses”, […]