A rchive Date
[ 18-02-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSTopNews/canadian_feb17-cp.html
Canadians confident in morals: poll
By MICHELLE MACAFEE-- Canadian Press
Sunday, February 17, 2002
MONTREAL (CP) -- Nearly three-quarters of Canadians think their fellow citizens have strong morals, a new opinion poll indicates.
Some 13.5 per cent of respondents to the Leger Marketing survey thought Canadians had a "very strong moral sense", while 59 per cent said it was somewhat strong.
A total of 20.1 per cent said Canadians have a somewhat weak moral sense, while 4.9 per cent thought it was very weak. Another 7.3 per cent said they did not know or refused to answer.
For a clear example of this moral sense in action, look no further than Canadians' reaction last week to the judging of the pairs figure skating event at the Olympics, said Margaret Somerville, an ethicist at McGill University.
The silver-medal finish for Canadians Jamie Sale and David Pelletier, which was later upgraded to gold, caused a flap that has dominated news coverage for several days.
"Even this outrage over the skating I think reflects a moral sense . . . that this isn't right," said Somerville.
"That cheating, that unfairness is wrong. I think Canadians think of themselves as moral people."
In another question, pollsters presented people with a number of activities and asked them to state whether or not they considered them to be immoral.
Shoplifting had the highest immorality rating, with 89.3 per cent. Shoplifting was followed by infidelity (80.8), hard-core drug use (79.2), tax evasion (77), prostitution (68.4) and alcohol abuse (66.1).
In the middle of the list was suicide, with 61.8 per cent, followed by working under the table (52.8), taking soft drugs such as marijuana (47.5), abortion (41.8), gambling (41.4) and swearing (40.2).
Pulling up the rear was homosexuality, with 32.1 per cent. Next was doctor-assisted suicide (31.3), followed by pre-marital sex (27.3), being an atheist (26.2) and divorce (22.3).
The poll, which was provided to The Canadian Press, was conducted between Jan. 8-13. Leger surveyed 1,519 people, making the margin of error 2.6 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
When these results are compared to similar surveys conducted a decade ago, Canadians appear to be more tolerant and permissive while still thinking of themselves as part of a moral society, said Leger Marketing president Jean-Marc Leger.
In the last ten years, the morality meter seems to have shifted away from social issues such as divorce and homosexuality, he added.
"When we touch on dishonesty, such as tax evasion, working under the table, that's seen as being more immoral than abortion or homosexuality," said Leger.
But Somerville said people often have degrees of morality, which makes it difficult to gauge the true sentiments behind Yes and No responses in the poll.
For example, someone's views on the immorality of shoplifting could vary depending on how much is stolen; whether the crime occurs in a department store or a corner store; whether the victim is a 16-year-old clerk saving for university or a faceless millionaire president of a successful corporate chain.
"What it (the results) reflects is both your own personal values and probably to some extent what you perceive as being societal values," said Somerville.
Familiarity also affects people's views on how morally acceptable certain behaviours are.
For example, the number of Canadian adults who have been divorced is substantially higher than the number of people who have shoplifted.
"Just as we can get used to physical risks, I think we can get used to moral risks and lose our sense of dread," said Somerville.
"One of the things we have to be careful of is that we don't wipe out our moral intuition."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]]
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