Across the country, optimism is falling

In the space of five years, the proportion of Canadians optimistic about the future has plummeted, according to the latest data released Tuesday by Statistics Canada. While the fall is particularly marked in British Columbia, Quebecers remain the least pessimistic in the country.

Judith Lachapelle
The Press

A bluer sky in Quebec?

Across the country, optimism is on the decline, data released by Statistics Canada revealed on Tuesday. But this fall is much more marked in the far west of the country. With a rate dropping from 76% to 62%, British Columbia is the province that has seen the largest drop in the proportion of people who say they have a positive perception of the future since 2016. Quebecers are those who remain the most optimistic about the future, followed by residents of Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan. “It’s really interesting,” observes Lauren Pinault, an analyst at Statistics Canada. “These results for Quebec are consistent with other indicators, such as the level of satisfaction with life. »

Pacific Pessimism

They have the sea on one side, snow-capped peaks on the other, and in between, a fertile valley that produces some of the best fruit in the country. Yet British Columbians see a bleaker future than other Canadians. Why ? “I don’t have the answer, I can only speculate,” said sociologist Susan McDaniel of the University of Victoria on the phone. “For centuries, people who have lost their jobs or are looking for a better future go west. In British Columbia, there are people who come from all over and who seek to improve their lot. But if they can’t find what they’re looking for, they feel more hopeless than elsewhere. Another peculiarity of the West: Across the country, Canadians who live in rural areas are slightly more optimistic than those who live in urban areas… except in Alberta. Only half of rural Albertans say they are optimistic, compared to 64% of urban Albertans. “Rural Albertans are generally more conservative than city dwellers,” observes Ms.^me McDaniel. “They don’t like the current Liberal government and are concerned about the economic situation, particularly the future of the oil industry,” she recalls.

Discrimination and immigration

The longer an immigrant has been established in the country, the more their perception of the future aligns with that of non-immigrants and reaches the Canadian average of 64%. “Difficult social situations, such as experiences of discrimination, were also associated with lower levels of optimism,” writes Statistics Canada. Ethnocultural minorities of Asian origin are particularly affected – their levels of optimism are below average. In another survey published in 2020, Chinese, Korean and Southeast Asian participants were more than twice as likely as white participants to report experiencing discrimination. This was also the case for Black Canadians, but unlike the others, they displayed above-average optimism in this survey (73%). The resilience of the black population was also measured in 2016: 44% of black people said they were “always” able to bounce back quickly after difficult times, while this proportion was 33% in the rest of the population.

Young people less optimistic, minorities more pessimistic

Overall, women (65%) are slightly more optimistic than men (63%), and young people (15-34) are much less optimistic in 2022 than they were in 2016. This year- there, 80% of young people had a positive perception of the future. Five years later, the proportion of young optimists is the same as that of older Canadians, at around 63%. “It is certain that young people have been heavily tested during the pandemic”, underlines Roxane de la Sablonnière, professor of social psychology at the University of Montreal, who conducted a study on the subject in 2021. “It is of a period of identity construction where they define themselves in relation to their peers, from whom they have been deprived of contact during the pandemic. Also, they don’t have the life experience of their parents and grandparents. Gender identity and sexual orientation are also a determining factor in the perception of the future.

Assumptions, no answers

What explains these national disparities? Statistics Canada is careful to draw conclusions, indicating that “further studies” are needed to understand these data. Roxane de la Sablonnière notes that the data was collected between August 2021 and March 2022. “During this period, perceptions may have changed,” she observes. Between a respondent questioned in August, when the sunny summer could suggest that the pandemic was over, and another respondent questioned in December or January, in the middle of the Omicron storm, the degree of optimism was something to vary…