Just under three-in-five residents of British Columbia express sympathy towards their counterparts in Seattle and Portland.
Vancouver, BC [August 24, 2021] – A significant proportion of British Columbians believe they will have a chance to live out their days in the province, a new Research Co. poll has found.
In the online survey of a representative provincial sample, 75% of British Columbians believe they will stay in the province for the rest of their lives, while 12% disagree and 12% are undecided.
While 90% of British Columbians aged 55 and over foresee remaining in the province, the proportion drops to 72% among those aged 35-to-54 and to 61% among those aged 18-to-34.
Across British Columbia, 84% of residents say they are very proud of the province that they live in, up three points since a similar Research Co. survey conducted in 2020.
While 90% of British Columbians who live in the Fraser Valley are very proud of their province, the numbers are lower in Metro Vancouver (84%), Southern BC (82%), Vancouver Island (78%) and Northern BC (also 78%).
A majority of British Columbians (57%, -7) say their views are different from the rest of the country, and a slightly larger proportion (59%, +1) think they have more in common with the people of Seattle and Portland than with those in Toronto or Montreal.
Fewer than one-in-five British Columbians (18%, -9) believe British Columbia would be better off as its own country. Just over three-in-five respondents (61%, -2) say they consider themselves “Canadians first, and British Columbians second”, while 22% (-3) say they are “British Columbians first, and Canadians second.”
“Three-in-ten residents of the province who voted for the BC Greens in the 2020 provincial election (30%) consider themselves British Columbians first,” says Mario Canseco, President of Research Co. “The numbers are lower among those who supported the BC New Democratic Party (NDP) (25%) and the BC Liberals (21%) in last year’s ballot.”
Just under three-in-ten British Columbians (29%, +7) think John Horgan has been the province’s best head of government since 1986, followed by Christy Clark (9%, =), Mike Harcourt (6%, -1), Gordon Campbell (also 6%, -1) and Bill Vander Zalm (5%, -9).
One-in-five British Columbians (21%, +6) regard Christy Clark as the worst recent premier, followed by Campbell (11%, =), Glen Clark (9%, +1) and Horgan (8%, +3).
Methodology: Results are based on an online study conducted from August 7 to August 9, 2021, among 800 adults in British Columbia. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region in British Columbia. The margin of error—which measures sample variability—is +/- 3.5 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.
Find our data tables here and download the press release here.
For more information on this poll, please contact:
Mario Canseco, President, Research Co.
778.929.0490 [e] mario.canseco@researchco.ca