ANALYSIS: Internal government polling shows sharp shifts in attitudes on COVID-19

In the last half of 2021, Canadians became less anxious about the virus and its spread and more concerned about other issues like the environment and the cost-of-living.

Canadian attitudes about COVID-19 dramatically shifted between the spring and late fall of last year, internal federal government polling shows, and shifted again with the rise of Omicron late in 2021.

Not only that, the issues of greatest concern to Canadians had also shifted significantly just as the Trudeau government was beginning its third term in November with topics like the environment, cost of living and affordable housing rising to the top of mind of many voters and displacing the virus as the top issue in the country.

And there were wide regional variations. For example, the state of the economy was the most-cited issue in Alberta when voters there were asked in mid-November which issue should receive the most attention from the federal government. Meanwhile, Quebecers, in mid-November, were least worried about COVID-19 and most likely to believe the spread of the virus was under control.

The shifting landscape of Canadian public opinion in the last 10 months when it comes to the issues of most concern to voters not only presents new challenges for policy makers in Ottawa and in provincial capitals, but it may also put in context some of the decisions those policy makers made — or failed to make — prior to the arrival of the Omicron variant in Canada.

By and large, the number of Canadians who said they were concerned  about the spread of the virus; who were worried about the impact it would have, or who thought it was not under control dropped significantly through 2021 even as other issues like the environment and the economy elbowed their way back as issues of top concerns for most voters, according to weekly polling done by the Privy Council Office (PCO), the government department that supports the work of the prime minister.

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Global News has built a database of these weekly internal PCO polls using the federal access to information law. The data collected by the PCO polling program is routinely circulated to the most senior decision makers inside the prime minister’s office as well as to every cabinet minister and deputy minister’s office.

The weekly polling program, which was a creation of the Trudeau government when it took office in 2015, produces data which cabinet and others use to make key decisions such as what to include in a budget or how best to respond to a crisis such as COVID-19.