Desire for identity separate from Canada gaining in Sask., but status quo most popular option: poll

A new national survey that asked people whether they wanted their provinces to do more to develop an identity separate from Canada found the most common preference in Saskatchewan was to keep things as they are.

Results of the Confederation for Tomorrow survey, released Thursday, suggest 40 per cent of Saskatchewan residents hold that opinion, while 24 said the province should do more to distinguish itself from Canada and 20 per cent think it should do less. Another 15 per cent responded that they couldn't say.

The poll surveyed 5,461 total adults in all 13 provinces and territories online and by phone, including 422 Saskatchewan residents, in January and February.

Nationally, about one in five Canadians agree that their province should be doing more to develop a separate identity from the rest of the country. But almost as many say their province should be doing the opposite. 

Saskatchewan saw the biggest growth rate among the provinces in wanting more efforts to have a separate identity, twice as high today than when residents were last asked the same question in 1991, according to the Environics Institute for Survey Research.

Meanwhile, half as many Quebec respondents feel that more emphasis should be placed on developing a separate identity compared to roughly 30 years ago.

The report was framed around Premier Scott Moe's "nation within a nation" comments in the fall, said Environics Institute executive director Andrew Parkin.

In November, Moe said he ​wanted the province to be a "nation within a nation" by increasing autonomy.

Moe was "referring to Saskatchewan taking greater control of its own economic sovereignty, especially when it is threatened by actions and policies of the federal government," Moe's press secretary wrote in an email to CBC News on Wednesday.

"Premier Moe continues to hear strong support for that objective among Saskatchewan people."

Moe also said at the time that he was "not talking about separation," but about "being a Saskatchewan cultural identity within the nation of Canada."

Two Prairie-based political parties that have advocated for western independence endorsed Moe's message, including the Maverick Party, formerly Wexit Canada.

"The notion that Saskatchewan's identity should become more distinct or more separate or go in a different direction from the rest of the country was something that caught our attention," Parkin said in an interview with CBC News on Wednesday.

Few Saskatchewan survey respondents (17 per cent) strongly agreed that their province has a distinct culture that is often misunderstood by people living in the rest of Canada.