The nonprofit surveyed more than 5,000 Canadians earlier this month and found that nearly three-quarters, or 72 percent, were critical of their county governments’ health care. Only 25 percent of respondents believed that their provinces managed health care well, the lowest number in eight years of follow-up by Angus Reid. “Provincial governments are signaling with their words and actions (such as the removal of COVID-19-related mandates) that the pandemic is over,” Angus Reid President Shachi Kurl told CTVNews.ca. “It is not surprising, then, that voters are beginning to expect primary care that is at least as reliable and accessible as it was before the pandemic, if not more so.” Provincial health care systems have been under increasing pressure since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, with virus and staffing problems leading to ongoing problems such as delayed surgery and longer waiting times for emergencies. Angus Reid found that just over half of those surveyed saw health care as a top provincial issue, ranking only behind rising cost of living and inflation, which worried 63%. The only other issue to break the top three was the affordability of housing, with 31 per cent citing it as a major provincial problem. Perhaps signaling that the pandemic is no longer on the minds of Canadians, only seven percent of those polled chose COVID-19 as a major provincial issue, up from 33 percent last year. “As the fear of COVID-19 disappears, the focus of Canadians is shifting to a healthcare system and most are not impressed by what they see,” said the Angus Reid study. “While affordability and rising cost of living are on the minds of many Canadians as rampant inflation raises the price of almost everything, healthcare is the only other issue that is gaining attention for at least two out of five in each county. . “ In each province, at least two-thirds of respondents felt that their governments had done a poor job in health care. Those in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador were the most critical, with 83 percent believing their county governments were performing poorly. Most of the praise came from Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, where 30 per cent of respondents approved of their governments handling healthcare. but even in these provinces, the negative opinions were more than the positive ones by two to one. While the majority in each demographic said their provinces failed in health care, women were more critical than men, with at least three-quarters saying their provinces performed poorly, compared to two-thirds of men. Respondents aged 55 and over were also more likely to see healthcare as the top issue in the province, while other age groups cited cost of living and inflation as their biggest concerns. “Health is something Canadians love from coast to coast,” Kurl said. “And they are deeply dissatisfied with the way their provincial governments are handling this crucial dossier.”
