A new poll just added leaves to the thickening pile of reports expounding the security threat China poses to Canadians, with a majority believing a global war involving the communist regime is already happening.
The survey also found that 55 percent of respondents believe a global war is already happening, but is being fought like a “death by a thousand cuts,” with some countries conducting “ongoing activities to destabilize, disrupt and undermine” the sovereignty and political institutions of their rivals.
The respondents who believe in an ongoing global war mostly reside in Alberta and British Columbia, both at 62 percent. Quebec has the lowest ratio of population that holds this belief, at 48 percent. Men and women overall held this view equally.
The poll comes as the relationship between Canada and China continues to deteriorate in recent years, starting with China’s arbitrary detention of two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor. Public perception of China’s threats also intensified with the exposure of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) human rights abuses against ethnic Muslims in its Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and against the people of Hong Kong.
“This study confirms yet again how out of sync the Government of Canada is with public opinion on China’s emerging threat to Canadian sovereignty and national security,” said Charles Burton, a senior fellow at MLI.
So far, the Trudeau government remains reluctant to exclude the Chinese company from building Canada’s 5G technology.
The Mura survey does reflect Canadian’s sharpened vigilance in foreign interference in the forms of cyberattacks, disinformation, influencing elections, and other economic and military coercions.
Meanwhile, 84 percent of respondents believe that new digital technology and artificial intelligence has “multiplied the threats to Canada’s national security.”
Maru Public Opinion surveyed 1,506 Canadian adults on Feb. 12 and Feb. 13, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20. The survey is commission by the Conference of Defence Associations.