Jobs, Economy Close In on Health Care as a Top National Concern for Canadians: Poll

A man looks through jobs at a Resource Canada office in Montreal in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Ryan Remiorz)

While health care has been the top national issue of concern for most of the last two years, financial matters and the economy have slowly inched into the top three worries for Canadians, according to a recent weekly Nanos Research poll.

Nanos tracks unprompted issues of concern each week, and in the newest poll for the week ending April 7, released April 11, the data indicates that jobs and the economy are closing in on health care as the top issue of concern following the federal budget.

Of the 1,000 random adult Canadians polled, 15.8 percent said health care was their most important national issue of concern, a drop of more than 4.5 points since the week ending March 10, four weeks ago. Meanwhile, 13.5 percent said jobs/economy, up from 12.3 percent, while inflation held steady at 10.1 percent.

Further, 9.1 percent were concerned about the environment, up from 6.8 percent from four weeks ago, but significantly lower than the 20.5 percent who said the environment was their main concern in January 2020.

Fear of war ranked low at 2.2 percent, while freedom of speech ranked slightly higher, at 2.3 percent, in the most recent poll. National security saw an increase, from 3.9 percent of Canadians identifying it as their most important national issue of concern in the poll from the week of March 10, to 5.1 percent in the most recent weekly data collected.

Economic Concerns

In an interview with CTV’s Trend Line on April 13, Nik Nanos, chief data scientist and founder of the research group, said all of the economic concerns of Canadians add up to about three out of every 10 Canadians focused on issues directly related to their pocketbook, or the economy.

“It’s like a smorgasbord of concern,” said Nanos. “Canadians are worried about where the economy is going.”

He said Canadians are “buckling up for the worst,” anticipating an economic downturn.

“The reality is, Canadians are still worried about paying for the rent, they’re still worried about paying for groceries. And there’s a massive dark cloud over a significant number of Canadians who were just worried about paying the bills this week,” said Nanos.

He said Canadians “have a significant level of grumpiness right now and uncertainty related to the economy.”

This was a similar finding to that in a new report issued by the federal government.

“Research on the State of the Economy - Fall 2022,” a Finance Department report released in April 2023, said the data indicates Canadians are “experiencing sticker-shock when it comes to the cost of day-to-day items.”

Most said they expected the price for staples such as groceries and gasoline to keep rising and perhaps become unaffordable.

Only half of Canadians said their own personal financial situation was positive, while 82 percent said the rising cost of living was a moderate source of stress, and 4 in 10 said it was a “major source of stress,” according to the report.

More than 70 percent were concerned about the cost of groceries.

“Participants spoke of using coupons, eating out less, changing eating habits, and buying in bulk,” said the report.

Other Canadians said they were “driving less and being efficient with trips, buying used instead of new, less discretionary spending in general, acquiring additional jobs, delaying purchases, and accumulating debt.”

Of those surveyed, 31 percent were worried about whether their “kids will be able to afford a place to live when they are older.” Another 21 percent were worried about “the impact of Canada’s national debt on our kids.”