Nearly half of Quebecers back a secular charter, poll shows

Only 30 per cent want referendum on sovereignty

Almost half of Quebecers support the idea of the province adopting a secular charter, shows a new Internet poll commissioned jointly by The Gazette and Le Devoir reveals.

Premier Pauline Marois raised the thorny issue of her government’s intention to adopt a secular charter recently, after a two-day meeting with her Parti Québécois caucus. The survey of 1,024 Quebecers was done by the Léger polling firm on Feb. 5 and 6, and seeks to tease out Quebecers’ positions on dozens of current political issues.

Forty-nine per cent of those surveyed said they support or strongly support the idea of Quebec adopting a Charter of secular values. In a related question, 54 per cent agreed that Quebec should officially declare itself to be a secular province.

Christian Bourque, vicepresident and executive director of Léger, said these re- sults are positive for the government since it has already announced its intention to move in this direction.

“But the government has to be careful this doesn’t become another Hérouxville,” Bourque said, referring to the controversial code of conduct for immigrants passed by the town of Hérouxville in 2007.

“We saw during the Bouchard-Taylor commission hearings (on reasonable accommodation of practises related to cultural differences) certain points of view were expressed that were xenophobic, and Quebecers want to be seen as tolerant.”

The vast majority of respondents — 81 per cent — also agreed with the statement: “In Quebec, equality of the sexes should prevail over freedom of religion.”

While the poll suggests Quebecers like the direction the government is taking on issues of secularity, they don’t seem to support the PQ’s idea of taking bilingual status away from municipalities where less than 50 per cent of residents have English as their mother tongue. Fifty-four per cent of respondents objected to that idea, and only 31 per cent were in favour, while 15 per cent didn’t know or refused to answer.

In terms of voting inten- tions, the PQ is still slightly ahead of the Liberals, with 33 per cent support to the Liberals’ 31 per cent. The Coalition Avenir Québec would get 20 per cent of the vote if elections had been held earlier this month, Québec solidaire eight per cent, Option nationale and the Green Party of Québec would each get three per cent.

Despite the PQ coming to power, support for sovereignty has been falling. In January of 2012, support for sovereignty was at 43 per cent,

“Quebecers want to be seen as tolerant.”

POLLSTER CHRISTIAN BOURQUE

while the new poll shows it was down to 37 per cent in early February of this year.

“Since 2002 we have never seen support for sovereignty get above 43 per cent, and it has never gone below 36 per cent, so nothing is really moving there. Even the majority of francophones say they don’t want a referendum,” Bourque noted.

Only 30 per cent of Quebecers would like to see a referendum on sovereignty held in the next five years, while 60 per cent would not. Among francophones, 36 per cent said they want a referendum on sovereignty in the next five years, while 54 per cent said they don’t. Among the three declared candidates for leader of the Liberal Party, Philippe Couillard was the clear favourite among respondents with 32 per cent support, second was Raymond Bachand with 13 per cent and Pierre Moreau had 10 per cent.

And, despite the intense interest young people have demonstrated in issues such as tuition fees and the “Occupy” movement over the past year, the vast majority of Quebecers still think 16 and 17 year olds are too young to vote. Asked whether they favour giving voting rights to 16 and 17-year-olds, 80 per cent of Quebecers said they were against the idea.

The poll also asked about resource exploitation, and the types of energy production respondents would favour.

Seventy-nine per cent of respondents said they favour wind farm development, 64 per cent said they favour oil exploitation, and only 25 per cent said they are in favour of shale gas exploitation.