Nearly half of young Canadians say socialism is the ideal economic system for Canada, according to a new report.
A Fraser Institute report released on Wednesday shows Canadians aged 18-to-34 had a more positive impression of socialism (46%) than capitalism (39%), communism (13%), and fascism (8%).
The percentages shown represent the share who either “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that each system was ideal for Canada, as opposed to disagreeing, strongly disagreeing or answering that they didn’t know.
Many young Canadians felt socialism was defined as receiving more from the government.
The most common perspectives of socialism among the group were “government providing more services like healthcare, education and daycare” (67%), and “the government guaranteeing a certain level of income for all citizens” (59%). The least common perspective of socialism was “the government taking control of companies and industries to control the economy” (36%).
According to most young Canadians, additional services and a guaranteed level of income should be financed by taxing wealthy citizens.
Seven-in-ten (72%) said socialism should be funded by increasing taxes on the top 1% of high-income citizens, and six-in-ten (57%) said the system should be funded by taxing the top 10%.
Fewer (32%) said socialism should be funded by raising income taxes to all citizens except those with low-income, and the least (20%) said socialism should be funded by adding a purchase tax on goods and services.
Support for socialism trended downwards with age, as 18-to-24-year-olds favoured socialism the most, and those aged 55+ favoured socialism the least.
