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Two thirds of Canadians support sending our troops to countries such as Poland if Russia invades, according to a new Postmedia-Leger poll.
“You’d like to think that this is really kind of a super hypothetical pie-in-the-sky kind of question. But unfortunately, crazy things are happening all around the world,” Andrew Enns, Leger’s executive vice-president for Central Canada, said Thursday.
Support is lower among women, at 56 per cent, and higher among men, at 76 per cent of those polled. Only 16 per cent of Canadians would oppose the deployment.
“You see a real gender divide on this question; it’s quite stark,” Enns said.
“Women, historically, have always been on the more peace side versus war side. The maternal instincts kick in, and I think that probably plays a big role.”
Support for the deployment drops to 58 per cent among those between the ages of 35 and 54, a group that’s more likely to have children. Support is slightly higher (61 per cent) among Canadians of fighting age, between 18 and 34.
Of those polled, 57 per cent hold positive impressions of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), a view that was more prevalent among male respondents (62 per cent).
Fewer female respondents (53 per cent) held a positive view of the CAF.
“Women might just not see the military as a place for them,” Enns said.
“I know it’s certainly changed over the last number of decades, but traditionally there is still a view that it is male dominated,” he said, noting a history of sexual harassment complaints against male officers as a likely factor in the equation.
Thirty-seven per cent of those polled feel the Armed Forces place too much emphasis on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, while 26 per cent are unsure.
Conservative voters (62 per cent), men (45 per cent) and those who hold a negative opinion of the CAF (58 per cent) are the most likely to believe too much emphasis is placed on DEI, according to the survey.
Just over half (51 per cent) are confident in the government’s ability to reach new recruitment targets of adding 6,500 people to the regular force and 75,000 reservists.
“That one did surprise me,” Enns said.
“If you have a positive impression about the Forces, you are really confident (63 per cent) they’re going to meet these targets. So, there is a little bit of, maybe it’s rose-coloured glasses” on the public’s part.
Sixty-eight per cent of Liberal voters believe Canada will hit recruiting targets, as do 41 per cent of Conservatives.
Fifty-five per cent of Canadians see the idea of encouraging civil servants to serve as part-time reservists as a good idea, according to the poll. That’s especially true among men (61 per cent) and those with positive views of the CAF (66 per cent).
“I found this surprising as well,” Enns said. “I’ll be honest … my first reaction was, ‘Are you crazy?’ The civil servants I know — I don’t think they’d make it an hour.”
Military brass walked back the proposed scheme recently.
“I think they felt the public reaction was going to be fairly poor,” Enns said. “And, lo and behold, it’s actually not that bad.”
Only 27 per cent of Canadians support increasing the GST to pay for a stronger military. One quarter thought Canada should raise the age when people are eligible for old age security benefits from 65 to 68 to beef up the military, and 21 per cent opted for increasing income taxes by five per cent to accomplish the same.
“There’s not a lot of appetite to raise much new revenue,” Enns said.
“There’s general support for re-arming the military … but paying for it, well, that’s a little bit different.”
Twenty per cent of those polled said Canada should proceed with purchasing F-35 stealth strike fighters for the Royal Canadian Air Force — a move that’s now under review. Thirty per cent would prefer Canada switch to a non-American aircraft and 18 per cent would opt for a mixed fleet.
Conservative voters (32 per cent) are the strongest supporters for sticking with F-35s.
“This is the public opinion result you get when you’ve endlessly debated something for over a decade,” Enns said. “People are just all over the map.”
If Canada goes all-in on the F35s, “there will probably be a bit of blowback, but there’s so much diversity in response patterns, I think it would be short-lived and pretty muted,” he said.
The number of Canadians who think we should buy non-American equipment has “probably inflated” this year, he said, with President Donald Trump’s oft repeated harangues about turning Canada into the 51st state.
Half of Canadians polled believe the federal government should prioritize buying military equipment that can be produced or manufactured in Canada by Canadian workers, while 29 per cent prefer focusing on the best and most cost-effective equipment, regardless of where it is made.
“We have, for decades, married the idea of re-arming the military with … economic development,” Enns said.
“Now the government is trying to pivot away from that, just saying we’ve got to re-arm our military as fast as we can.”
The online survey of 1,579 people was conducted between Nov. 28 and 30 and the results were weighted according to age, gender, mother tongue, region, education and presence of children in the household. A margin of error cannot be applied. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size would yield a margin of error of plus or minus 2.47 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
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