Canadians sharply more dissatisfied with direction of country at end of 2023

The following article by Andrew Parkin was published in Policy Options on December 27, 2023. Andrew Parkin is the Institute’s executive director.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a challenging time. It threatened our lives and our health, upset our jobs and our livelihoods, and distanced us from friends and family.

In the spring of 2020, it would have been reasonable to expect that this would have an immediate and profoundly negative effect on the public mood, but that things would rebound quickly once the emergency passed.

One of the most curious features of Canadian politics over the past four years is that the exact opposite has happened.

In a series of surveys over the past decade, the Environics Institute has asked Canadians a simple question: Overall, are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the way things are going in our country today?

Their answers tell several important stories, including about how difficult people have found things in 2023.

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