A new poll is suggesting that the percentage of Canadians who believe COVID-19 restrictions should end has leapt from 40% to 54% in less than a month.
The latest poll, which was conducted by Angus Reid between Jan. 27 and 28, suggested that more than half (54%) of all Canadians strongly agree or agree that it is time to end restrictions and “let people self-isolate if they are at risk.”
This compares to 40% of respondents who strongly disagree or disagree that restrictions should end and 6% who are unsure.
“The public sentiment appears to be moving in the direction of opening up communities,” said the Angus Reid Institute. “Indeed, in the past two weeks the number of Canadians saying they would like to see restrictions ended has risen by 15 percentage points, to a majority (54%).”
The numbers from a previous poll from earlier in January had suggested things were the other way around, with 40% of respondents strongly agreeing or agreeing that restrictions should end and 55% who strongly disagreed or disagreed. The number that was unsure remained similar, at 5%.
According to the new poll, every province except those in Atlantic Canada showed the majority of people agreeing that restrictions should end, with Saskatchewan seeing the highest support at 62%.
The poll also suggested that most age groups for both genders – except women 55 years old and older – support ending restrictions, with men 35 to 54 years old providing the most support at 60%. The poll suggested that 51% of women 55 years old and older disagreed.
The poll also included questions about COVID-19 infections, suggesting that 21% of Canadians say they have been infected since Dec. 1. When questioned about their symptoms, 52% said they were relatively mild, 47% claimed they were serious but manageable and 1% said they were very severe.
The poll was conducted among a randomized sample of 1,688 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. A probability sample of this size has a margin of error +/- 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
The poll comes as the Truckers for Freedom Convoy enters into its ninth day of protests calling on the federal government to end vaccine mandates and other restrictions under COVID.
