Canadians eager for post-COVID-19 ‘normal’, but mixed on how to get there: poll

The Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News found two-thirds of Canadians say governments aren't doing enough to get the country back to normal.

Canadians are eager to return to some version of “normal” after two years of living through the COVID-19 pandemic, but a new poll finds mixed opinions on how to achieve that.

The Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News did find some consensus, with two-thirds of Canadians saying governments aren’t doing enough to get the country back to normal — even if they can’t agree what politicians should be doing.

“Even though we’re saying that we want to get back to something that resembles a normal life, we’re still pretty tentative,” said Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs.

“The thing that they’re really saying to us at the moment is they still believe that there is a significant risk out there, particularly with the Omicron variant.”

While one in five Canadians surveyed said they already feel like life is returning to normal, an equal number said they’re not sure if they will ever feel comfortable living without masks or vaccine mandates for businesses and workplaces.

“I would say that where (Canadians) are right now is on fairly thin ice,” Bricker said. “They feel like the ice is thickening up a bit, but still not enough to just kind of run out there into the middle of the lake.”

The poll, which surveyed over 1,000 Canadians across the country last weekend, comes as a convoy of truckers descends on Ottawa to protest vaccine mandates and other public health measures.

Yet the results show a strong majority supports the underlying reasons for those mandates, with 71 per cent agreeing that “we need to slow the spread of Omicron to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed” — even if that prolongs restrictions.