Canadian’s sense of national pride is on the decline, according to a new survey.

Seventy-eight percent of those polled by Angus Reid in 1985 said they were “very proud” to be Canadian. This dipped to 52 percent in 2016 and has now fallen another 18 points to 34 percent.

“The proportion who say they are either proud or very proud of their nationality has dropped precipitously from 79 percent to 58 percent over the past eight years,” the report on the survey’s findings said.

While the majority of Canadians continue to have a “deep attachment” to Canada and what it stands for, that majority has also dwindled significantly, according to the survey.

While there was little change in this sentiment between 1991 and 2016, feelings of attachment to Canada have fallen sharply in the past eight years.

Sixty-five percent of Canadians surveyed in 1991 professed to have a “deep attachment” to Canada and that number dipped only slightly to 62 percent in 2016. It is down to 49 percent this year, a 13 point drop.

An additional 37 percent of those surveyed this year said they were attached to Canada “but only as long as it provides a good standard of living.”

Eight percent of respondents expressed a lack of attachment to Canada, saying they would like to see the country split into two or more smaller nations and 6 percent said Canada should join the United States.

At least two-thirds of residents in every province but Quebec said in 2016 they had a “deep” connection to Canada. A decrease of double digits in this sentiment this year has been observed in all provinces, with the sole exception of Quebec, the survey found.

Quebec’s attitude can be largely explained by its starting point, which was already the lowest in the nation at 37 percent. It has since dropped seven points to 30 percent.

Alberta, however, recorded a substantial decline of 20 percentage points, decreasing from 67 percent in 2016 to 47 percent at present. Manitoba also saw a steep decline, falling 18 points from 75 percent in 2016 to 57 percent currently.

Saskatchewan and B.C. attachment levels each dropped 17 points down to 50 and 53 percent respectively while Atlantic Canada dropped by 16 points to 59 percent. Ontario had a 71 percent attachment rate in 2016 which has since fallen 14 points to 57 percent.

Age was also a factor in attachment to Canada. Candians 55 and older were much more likely to say they had a deep emotional attachment to Canada than younger generations, the poll found.

Women 55 and older were the most patriotic, with 66 percent saying they had an emotional attachment to Canada followed by men in the same age range at 63 percent. Females in the 35 to 54 age range were also more sentimental about Canada than their male counterparts at 46 percent and 43 percent respectively.

That is where the trend ended, however. Only 26 percent of females in the 18 to 34 age bracket said they were deeply attached to Canada compared to 39 percent of males that age.

Incomes were also a factor in how Canadians felt about their country, the survey suggested. Canadians with the least pride in their country tended to be in the lowest household income bracket while those with higher incomes were more inclined to take pride in their nation.
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