Free Canadian public opinion data: Ipsos Canadian Public Affairs Dataverse

Breaking news!  Ipsos Canada, one of Canada's major public opinion research firms, has donated the detailed data files from many of their studies to Wilfred Laurier University... and they are now freely available to the whole world!  

We've set up a link to this valuable resource from from our list of databases, which means that it will be picked up by the Library Search feature on our homepage. It's listed as the "Ipsos Canadian Public Affairs Dataverse."

See the press release for full details, or read on for some brief highlights.

The Ipsos Canadian Public Affairs Dataverse is a repository of over 60 Ipsos Canada surveys that shed light on Canadian culture, politics, and society. 

A substantial number of the surveys donated deal with politics -- Canadian voter intentions and general election surveys -- but I thought I'd focus on a few of the survey series that touch on topics that might be of more interest to Bus/Econ researchers:  

• The Ipsos I-Rep and HIGH-Rep series surveys consumers on brands and brand reputations in Canada. This syndicated study measures the reputation of companies in the marketplace and their respective industries.
    
• The Ipsos Canada’s Pulse series gathers public opinion data from Canada’s largest cities on behalf of Global Television. These surveys query respondents’ opinions on issues such as crime, transit, municipal politics, and the economy. Datasets include a wealth of accompanying statistical tables and reports generated for Global.
   
• The Ipsos End of Year Poll is an annual survey that reveals Canadians attitudes about the year that has passed as well as their feelings on the future. The poll reveals Canadians' opinions on national and international politics, current events, attitudes toward Christmas, and feelings on newsmakers and news stories.
   
• The Ipsos RBC Housing and Home Renovations Studies allow for the analysis of trends on renovation intentions, home ownership and rental, real estate market, and the impact of home ownership in the community.

Don't forget that SFU researchers also have access to the Ipsos News Centre database, complete with detailed data tables, demographic breakdowns, charts, and/or PowerPoint slides.  The Ipsos News Centre database has newer content than the freely available data discussed above, so is definitely worth a look.

There's more! In 2009-2010 we were able to buy some detailed Ipsos Canada reports on the online activities of Canadians. These Ipsos Inter@ctive Reid Reports provide an interesting snapshot of a time when, arguably, high-speed access had only recently become common enough for the WWW to truly be woven into our lives.

But wait!  There's even more...  we also have older print volumes covering 1986-2008 of the Ipsos Trend Report. 

Ok, I'll stop now, but do let me know if all of this prompts any questions!

-- MarkB
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mark Bodnar
Economics & Business Librarian
mbodnar@sfu.ca