小蓝视频

Five years ago, Canadians grappled with the realization that their daily lives would be altered. What began in the form of quick media stories on a virus making its way through Asia and Europe developed into a global pandemic.

The findings of the first survey where Research Co. asked Canadians about COVID-19, , outline our collective naiveté. More than half of us (54 per cent) expected the situation to go “back to normal” by the end of the summer. This did not happen.

Most of the political players that featured prominently during the pandemic are no longer in charge of governments. Still, we remember the press conferences with then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and the provincial election that resulted in a massive mandate for the 小蓝视频 New Democratic Party with 31 per cent of all ballots cast by mail.

Last month, we asked Canadians to look back at the way COVID-19 was managed. More than half think the way the federal government dealt with the pandemic was a success (52 per cent, up two points ). The level of satisfaction is the same for municipal governments (52 per cent, up one point) and lower for non-governmental organizations (46 per cent, down one point), the official opposition in Ottawa (39 per cent, up four points), unions (39 per cent, down one point) and trade associations (37 per cent, up two points).

The media continues to get marks similar to the one posted by the federal government with about half of Canadians saying the way the pandemic was handled by television news (53 per cent, up one point), radio news (51 per cent, unchanged) and newspapers (49 per cent, unchanged) was a success.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to some major fluctuations when provincial governments were compared with each other. Alberta usually garnered a lower level of satisfaction during the tenure of Jason Kenney, while the numbers were superior for Ontario under Doug Ford, Quebec under François Legault and British Columbia under John Horgan.

Across the country, more than half of Canadians (54 per cent, up five points) think their provincial government was successful in managing COVID-19, while just under two in five (39 per cent, up one point) feel the same way about their respective official oppositions. The ratings for provincial administrations echo what was observed throughout the pandemic, with majorities of Quebecers (57 per cent), British Columbians (56 per cent) and Ontarians (54 pr cent) looking back fondly at the performance of their elected officials. In Alberta, the proportion is decidedly lower (39 per cent).

Residents of Quebec and Ontario are more likely to say that the official Opposition in their provinces was successful in its approach to COVID-19 (43 per cent and 41 per cent respectively) than their counterparts in British Columbia and Alberta (36 per cent and 32 per cent).

Most Canadians continue to think there is still much to be learned from our experience. More than three in five support holding public inquiries into the way the COVID-19 pandemic was managed by the federal (64 per cent, up two points), provincial (65 per cent, up four points) and municipal (62 per cent, up five points) governments.

A final question on what Canadians had to deal with identifies pockets of frustration. While most of the country’s residents (53 per cent) believe we were right to have strict public health measures in place to stop the spread of COVID-19, three-in-ten (30 per cent) look back and think the response to the pandemic was probably too heavy-handed and one-in-ten (10 per cent) call COVID-19 a hoax that never should have altered our lives.

Perceptions of an exaggerated reaction to the pandemic are more prevalent—albeit not near majority territory—among Conservative voters in 2021 (43 per cent), Albertans (38 per cent), Canadians aged 35-54 (35 per cent) and men (34 per cent). Belief that the course of action taken to deal with COVID-19 was correct rises to 65 per cent among Canadians aged 55 and over, 57 per cent among British Columbians and 56 per cent among women.

Next week, we will review the sentiments of Canadians on another aspect of the COVID-19 pandemic that commanded public attention: blockades and protests. For now, our findings show that the public has not become more critical of pandemic management as the virus becomes a distant memory. The strident voices that suggest a massive level of animosity against elected officials and the media are evidently not representative of the public at large.

Mario Canseco is president of Research Co.

Results are based on an online survey conducted on March 23 and March 24, 2025, among 1,003 adults in Canada. The data has been statistically weighted according to census figures for age, gender and region in Canada. The margin of error—which measures sample variability—is +/- 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.