The vast majority of Canadians support measures aimed at controlling the Omicron variant of COVID-19, and we’re mostly staying home this holiday season, a new poll reports.
A new study from Leger polling and marketing, in conjunction with Canadian Press, also finds that Canadians and Americans think rather differently about COVID-19, at least in some respects.
The latest poll, conducted online from Dec. 3 to 5, finds that a whopping 87% of Canadians support the idea of “going back to mandatory testing for all travellers coming into Canada.” For the U.S. the number was 81%.
The Canadian government last week said it will start on-arrival testing for all passengers flying into Canada from destinations other than the U.S. The United States has changed its testing requirement and now requires all passengers flying to the States to present a negative COVID-19 test result taken with one calendar day of their scheduled flight.
Asked about closing national borders to travellers coming from specific countries where the variant is already present, a full 82% of Canadians said they support the idea, compared to 76% for US respondents.
Both the Canadian and US governments have slapped temporary travel bans on a number of nations, mostly from South Africa. Critics have charged those programs are unfair, almost useless and borderline racist.
Asked if they support re-introducing some social distancing and temporary lockdown restrictions in Canada for certain public places or certain activities, 68% of Canadians said they do. For U.S. residents, that number was 62%.
Asked if the US-Canada border should be closed “for a period of time,” 65% of Canadians and 57% of Americans said yes.
In what sounds like bad news for Canadian tourism, only 13% of Canadians (and 10% of Americans) said they plan to travel this holiday season.
Opinions between the two countries varied widely on other issues, however. Seventy eight per cent of Canadians favour booster shots for COVID-19, compared to just 63% of Americans. On the issue of mandatory vaccinations, 64% of Canadians support the idea, compared to only 49% of U.S. respondents.
Mandatory vaccinations were supported by 67% of respondents in Ontario, but only 55% in Alberta.
