Canadians' 'Rage Index' reaches record high amid poor economy and governance

Roberto Wakerell-Cruz
  |   May 13, 2024   |   Be the first to comment

Canadians are angry with their government, the state of the country's economy, and current events, according to the Pollara Rage Index.

The index asks Canadians about how they believe the federal and provincial governments are performing, how the national economy is doing, how personal finances are, and how Canada is changing.

On average, Canadians annoyed or angry about those topics sat at 58 percent, an increase of 5 percent since January.

Canadians who were very angry about those topics saw a 4 percent increase to 21 percent in that time.

The Rage Index reported that it had set a "new high" in April "with record levels of anger about the Canadian economy, and both federal and provincial governments."

The Canadian economy performed particularly poorly, as well as recent news events, with 67 percent of respondents being annoyed or angry with the two.

Although Ontario showed the highest level of anger towards the provincial government, reaching 60 percent, British Columbia experienced the most significant increase.

Anger towards the provincial government in British Columbia soared from 38 percent in January to 54 percent in April, marking a notable increase of 16 percent.

Alberta and Ontario saw increases of 9 percent and 8 percent respectively, while anger towards the provincial government fell by 1 percent in Quebec between January and April.

Among the generations, Gen X (44-59 years old) emerged as the most unhappy, showing the highest proportion of individuals expressing annoyance or anger towards the federal government, the Canadian economy, and changes in Canada.

Furthermore, political allegiance played a significant role in determining levels of dissatisfaction. Conservative voters tended to be more annoyed, angry, and have intense displeasure across nearly every category.

In contrast, Liberal voters appeared to be the most content, while supporters of the NDP and Bloc Québécois displayed similar levels of discontentment.

The poll also found that just 31 percent of those polled were familiar with the details of the latest federal budget, with Liberals having the most positive reaction to it. 78 percent of Conservatives had a negative view, with just 1 percent having a positive view.

Bloc voters were also critical of the budget with 66 percent having a negative view.

Just 9 percent of Canadians had positive feelings towards the budget, while 53 percent felt negative. The remainder had neutral or no feelings toward the budget.

"Increasing the capital gains tax is the most widely known measure of the budget. Feelings on this are mixed, though more positive when details of the policy are explained. After being told about budget measures, positive sentiment towards the budget doubles from 9% to 18%, but more are still negative towards it (40%)," the report states.

The data was gathered from a survey conducted between Apr. 22-26 and featured 1,507 randomly selected Canadian adults.

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