It has been a long year since the pandemic first started to impact Canada and lockdown measures were put into place. And while the pandemic’s end still looms a ways in the distance, it seems that a public consensus has stayed strong around COVID-19.
Canadians are as supportive of government response to the virus as they were when public sentiment was first recorded in June of 2020, according to a report released by the Public Policy Forum.
Authored by Dr. Peter Loewen, Director of PEARL at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy and a Fellow with the Public Policy Forum, the report relies on data collected through the Media Ecosystem Observatory.
If anything, the public has grown more concerned about the virus. Compared to figures from June 2020, findings show that “the share of those who express that they are very concerned about COVID-19 has grown 6.8 percentage points, from 35.5 to 42.3. It is important to say that this concern is well-rooted in the empirical reality of COVID-19. The combined risk of a highly infectious and dangerous virus should lead to high levels of concern.”
Ultimately there is a COVID-19 consensus, he writes. Broadly, Canadians agree on:
- The risks of the disease.
- What measures should be taken to fight it.
- How much income support governments should be providing.
Looking at the two-pronged strategy of generous income supports and various lockdown measures, Dr. Loewen concludes: “Despite serious COVID-19 fatigue, and despite high-profile (and well-covered) protests against various governments, the majority of Canadians are broadly supportive of both parts of our COVID-19 strategy.”
