True patriot love: Manitobans feeling more Canadian than ever, poll finds

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This article was published 30/06/2017 (3031 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitobans are feeling more patriotic as the country marks its sesquicentennial this weekend, and many say the election of a divisive president in the U.S. has brought out their Canadian pride.

The findings are part of a special Canada 150th birthday Winnipeg Free Press-Probe Research omnibus poll of Manitobans taken earlier this month to gauge views on patriotism.

Seventy-three per cent of those polled said Donald Trump makes them prouder than ever to be Canadian.

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Mary Agnes Welch of Probe Research said the question referring to Trump shows “the contrast between the two countries is pretty stark right now.

“There’s a feeling, as Canadians, when we look down south, we have a bit of a sense of smugness rightly or wrongly.”

The poll also found more than three in five Manitobans feel more patriotic than they were a decade ago.

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Welch said the patriotism answers are interesting because one involves the American president and the other looks at individuals’ patriotic feelings spanning a decade.

The 73 per cent includes 52 per cent who strongly agree that Trump’s administration has made them feel more patriotic and 21 per cent of Manitobans who moderately agree.

In addition, women are more likely to agree than men (78 per cent versus 67 per cent); Winnipeggers are more likely to agree than rural Manitobans (76 per cent versus 68 per cent); and Liberals are more likely to agree than Tories (82 per cent versus 66 per cent).

Welch said of the 22 per cent who said Trump’s presidency hadn’t made them more proud to be Canadian, young men, adults between 18 to 34 and people who rent their residences disagreed most with the statement.

Younger people said they feel more patriotic this year than a decade ago. Sixty-eight per cent of people aged 18 to 34 agree with the sentiment.

“I guess it’s because older people probably already consider themselves patriotic. It’s a change in our naturally modest patriotism driven by a combination of Canada 150 and Trump, and it’s younger people doing it,” Welch said.

Royce Koop, a political science professor at the University of Manitoba, said he thinks the answers to the Trump question and the patriotism question may be linked.

“The Trump one is exactly what you’d expect,” Koop said. “Canadians had a very high view of (former U.S. president) Barack Obama and a correspondingly low view of Donald Trump, so it’s not surprising you’d have that response… and it seems the things we take for granted here, health care, how we deal with refugees, are very much contested in the United States right now. But it’s more of what we think are Canadian.

“Maybe now we just think we’re openly more patriotic than in the past because of the contrast,” he said.

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In terms of celebrating, the poll found that more than half of Manitobans plan to do something special to mark Canada’s 150th anniversary, but a majority don’t think it was worth it for the federal government to spend $500 million to mark the occasion.

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A marked increase in patriotism doesn’t surprise Samantha Hobson, manager of the Flag Shop.

Hobson said people aren’t wearing their patriotism on their sleeve — they’re putting it on a pole or tying it to a balcony.

“The commemorative Canada 150 logo flag has been very popular,” she said. “We’ve had several shipments come in. They come in and go out as quickly as we get them. Lots of people are really excited about it.”

Hobson said their best seller year-round is the standard Canadian flag, measuring 90 by 180 inches, which everyone from municipalities to schools to cottagers get, people even put them on their balconies, but the most popular to put on a residential flag pole is 27 by 54 inches.

“We’ve put grommets on the other side so people can hang them on a balcony and tie them in place,” she said.

“When the Jets came back, we sold a lot of their flags, and when the Bomber season starts, we always sell a lot, but the Canadian flag is always our biggest seller.”

Loren Remillard, president and CEO of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, said he doesn’t know whether anti-Trump sentiments and a boost in Canadian patriotism will translate into more Manitobans vacationing in Canada this year.

“Informally we’ve heard of various people changing their travel plans, but so many factors really come into play — the Canadian dollar, and Canada’s 150th celebration is a major draw. When Winnipeggers stay home, we like to believe it’s because there’s world-class attractions in our own back yard.

“But would they say they wouldn’t travel down there if the dollar was at par? I don’t know if it would be the same,” he said.

Remillard said he believes patriotism is connected more to who we are as Canadians as opposed to what we think of an American president at any given time.

“I like to believe Canadians feel more patriotic because of what Canadians believe and what our country represents. What defines us as Canadian is here in our country and not out of our country. Canadians should be proud of how we responded to the refugee crisis. There are many reasons why we should be proud,” he said.

Welch said everyone usually celebrates and does something during a long weekend, but this year more than half of Manitobans say they are doing “something special” and most of them are young men and people with families.

“It means the parks will be extra busy,” she said.

A provincial spokesman said the parks are always busy on Canada Day weekend, and they’re not looking to doing anything different such as increasing security at campgrounds.

“Manitoba Parks have a long tradition of hosting campers on Canada Day. We’re ready,” the spokesman said.

But for many people, doing “something special” means heading to The Forks for the celebration and fireworks.

Winnipeg police spokesman Const. Rob Carver said they will have extra officers working July 1, but that is more because of the crowds expected to celebrate the occasion. He said the biggest celebrations are expected to be at The Forks, Assiniboine Park, Osborne Village, and downtown at the Carbone Block Party.

“We always look at it as crowd size and type of crowd,” Carver said.

“A political demonstration with 2,000 people would have more officers. We know that if the weather is good, we could see 100,000 at The Forks because in the past there has been 60 to 70,000 people. That’s throughout the day, not all at once. But we need a police presence to keep a large number of people safe.

“We don’t expect issues, but we have to be appropriately prepared.”

Welch said she found it interesting that while Manitobans feel more patriotic, a majority of them don’t believe the federal government should have spent $500 million for the national celebration.

Welch said women (64 per cent), particularly those aged 18 to 34 (67 per cent), were the most against the Liberal government spending money. Those in favour of paying for a party were likely to be men (46 per cent), especially young men between 18 to 34 (50 per cent).

“Manitobans are supportive of the celebration, but not in favour of ponying up big dollars to make it special,” she said.

“I wonder if there’s something not quite as momentous about a 150th? Or maybe it is general skepticism of big government spending?”

Todd MacKay, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s prairie director, said he believes it is the latter.

“I think a lot of it comes down to who’s best to do these things,” MacKay said.

“Should we celebrate the 150th? Absolutely. Invite some people over, bake a cake, crack open some cold ones. We don’t need the government’s help for everything.

“And we don’t need to spend thousands of dollars in Calgary to bring in a big red ball or a big rubber duck in Toronto… with $500 million, how many MRIs would that pay for? How many police officers?

“People are rightly sceptical.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca