On finding federal government public opinion survey results

Public opinion polling results can be a gold mine for both business and economics researchers. Whether you are focusing on the incentives that drive business owners, no-show fees in restaurants & medical offices, or opinions about cell phone prices, there's a good chance you will find published polling results to factor into your analysis.

I tend to focus first on the major polling firms that we see mentioned in the news — e.g., Ipsos, Research Co., Angus Reid, Abacus, Léger, Nanos, Earnscliffe, and Environics — but there's a hidden gem that I sometimes forget to check: the public opinion research reports commissioned by various agencies of our federal government.  

Managed by Library and Archives Canada, the portal to Public Opinion Research provides reports on research done from 2006 onward for agencies such as the CTRC and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, with new reports generally added within 6 months of being completed.

You can either browse for reports by department or run a relatively basic search (keywords in the title field only, mixed with year, department name, etc.). It's not exactly an efficient or fancy interface, but with a bit of digging, you can dig up such gems as...

• Understanding Americans’ views on key issues of interest to Canadians, 2023 [for Global Affairs Canada]
• Financial Consumer Agency of Canada survey of Stablecoin users (Canada) 2023
• 2023-24 Consumer perceptions of Canadian agriculture, foods and seafood products in Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea
• AAFC Canadian Consumers Survey – Wave II (2023) [re: Canadian consumer attitudes toward Canada's agriculture & food sector: products, growers, prices, quality, etc.]
• Annual public opinion research measures 2024 [for Canada Energy Regulator (CER) re: opinions about pipelines, powerlines, the National Energy Board, and CER]
• Follow-up survey and qualitative research on controlled substances awareness, knowledge, and behaviours for public education (2024) [for Health Canada]

In most cases, the surveys were conducted by non-governmental firms, including several that I named at the top of this post; the 6 reports above were by Ipsos, Leger, Earnscliffe Strategy Group, and Environics, for instance. Those contracted firms sometimes publish the results on their own pages as well, but not always, so bookmark the LAC's Public Opinion Research site and check it regularly!

Questions?  You know where to find me!

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

P.S.: Random fact: I just searched the BUEC Buzz's archives and found that the last time I posted about this PORR resource was way back in Feb. 2008!