Compas Poll / Survey

Canadians who want the Quebec City Summit of the Americas to implement free trade for the Americas trump their opponents more than 2:1—54% vs. 22% with 24% undecided or in the middle. Enthusiasm for more free trade is rooted in a widely held confidence that Canada already benefits from NAFTA—53% vs. 25%.

Canadian support for free trade is driven by practical experience and observation, not by ideology. The theoretical benefits for each country involved in a free trade arrangement, as conceived by economists, do not resonate as strongly with the public. Respondents were asked to what extent they agree with the following portrayal of this theoretical benefit:

Free trade is good for every country because it means that highly educated countries like Canada end up creating more high end jobs that pay a lot while less educated countries end up creating more jobs requiring low skilled labour with the result that there are more jobs and less unemployment for everyone.

Supporters of the theoretical benefits of free trade outnumber opponents by a meagre 1.5:1—46% vs. 30%.

In keeping with Canadians’ pragmatic attitudes about trade, many harbour reservations about free trade even while embracing it. Furthermore, Canadians’ reservations about free trade are concerned with practical matters such as whether the benefits accrue to foreign or Canadian companies rather than with whether Canadian sovereignty is threatened.

In practice, the two strongest reservations about free trade are fear that American or worldwide companies become the main beneficiaries and that Canada will need to be ever more alert to the threat of criminals, terrorists or other undesirables turning up on our shores. Fear of loss of sovereignty elicits appreciably less concern.

Respondents were asked the following questions about the challenges posed by free trade: