Satisfaction, Outlook and Opportunities

Current circumstances and events are presenting Canadians with an accumulation of challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic is lingering and placing renewed pressure on an already stretched health care system. At the same time, new concerns have emerged over the rising cost of living and the looming possibility of a global economic recession. The international context features a Russian invasion of Ukraine, tense relations with China, and destabilizing political polarization in the United States. Against this backdrop, the 2022 Focus Canada survey assessed Canadians’ sense of satisfaction, their economic outlook, and their optimism regarding their own opportunities and those facing the next generation.

The survey finds that inflation has, in fact, emerged to take the place of the pandemic as Canadians’ top concern. But concerns differ by age group: younger Canadians are more likely to be preoccupied with the cost of living and affordable housing, while their older counterparts are more likely to be worried about health care. There are also differences across regions. Health care is much more likely to be seen as the most important problem facing the country in Atlantic Canada than it is in the rest of the country; climate change is more than twice as likely to be mentioned as most important by Quebecers as by those living outside the province.

Survey Details

The survey was conducted in partnership with Century Initiative. This survey is based on telephone interviews conducted (via landline and cellphones) with 2,000 Canadians between September 6 and 30, 2022. A sample of this size drawn from the population produces results accurate to within plus or minus 2.2 percentage points in 19 out of 20 samples.