Gay marriage (a.k.a. same-sex
marriage, ssm, & marriage equality)

Canadian public opinion polls during
2003-JAN to AUG, about two years
before gay marriage was legalized.

See also descriptions of polls for other years

Overview:

A battle had been in progress for years over whether equal rights and equal protection against discrimination should be extended to homosexuals. Recently, this has expanded into the area of same-sex marriage. The core conflict is whether:

	Marriage should be a special privilege of heterosexuals, and restricted to one man and one woman. This is currently required by legislation in most jurisdictions and supported by social conservatives and most mainline religious institutions in North America, or
	Whether all adults in loving, supportive, and committed relationships should be allowed to marry or enter into civil unions, regardless of their sexual orientation, as proposed by more liberal religious groups and some secular organizations.

Since mid-1996, a plurality of Canadian adults appear to favor same-sex marriage. By 2004-OCT, senior courts, in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Yukon had concluded that denial of marriage to gays and lesbians is unconstitutional. A lawsuit was underway in Saskatchewan at the time of the poll. Funds are being collected for a suit in New Brunswick.

By 2004-AUG, interest among Canadians about same-sex marriage seems to have decreased significantly. There have averaged fewer than one letter to the editor to the Toronto Star -- one of Canada's largest newspapers -- per week on this topic during the Summer.

Support for same-sex marriage is much higher in Canada than in the U.S. Year 2002 data from the U.S. appears to be close to Canadian data from 1996. We attribute the difference to the much larger percentage of fundamentalist and other evangelical Christians in the U.S., compared to Canada.

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2003-JUN? Centre for Research and Information on Canada poll (CIRC):

The Globe and Mail referred to this CRIC poll as "recent" when they published the results in 2003-JUN-11. The first question was:

"Do you support or oppose gay marriages?"

The poll was taken before the Ontario Court of Appeal ordered the Government of Ontario to start registering same-sex marriages.

The second question was an apparent reference to the notwithstanding clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms -- Canada's constitution -- which allows a government in Canada to pass legislation that temporarily violates the Charter. It asked:

"If the Supreme Court of Canada said that the federal government had to give days and lesbians the right to be married, do you think that the government should or should not use its power to overrule the court's decision."

The results are similar to those of previous polls:

	A significant majority of adults favor expanding the institution of marriage to include same-sex couples.
	Support drops with age for both men and women.

One new piece of information is that the majority of adults of all age ranges feel that the federal government should accept a decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in favor of same-sex marriage. ₁

2003-AUG-30: NFOCF Group poll:

This poll was conducted via telephone during AUG-25 to 30. 1,015 Canadian adults were surveyed. The margin of error was ~+mn~3.2 percentage points. Results were released on SEP-5. Overall, they found 46% of Canadian adults favor SSM and 46% are opposed. ₂ Pollster Richard Jenkins noted that few public policy issues have so clearly divided Canadians along generational lines as SSM. He said:

"Younger Canadians really are on side with gay marriage, and there's a real danger that this will alienate youth even further."

He found that  61% of adults under 35 support SSM while 62% of seniors oppose it!

Other findings:

	58% reject the concept that marriage should be left to religious institutions.
	52% said there is nothing morally wrong with homosexuality. This was 60% for adults under the age of 25. 33% disagree; 15% gave no opinion. It is not clear whether the question referred to homosexual orientation or homosexual behavior. It is also not clear whether the question referred to homosexuality in general, or homosexual behavior for the individual who was polled.
	57% said that SSM does not threaten the institution of marriage; 32% disagree; 11% gave no opinion.
	65% say that homosexual couples should be treated the same as heterosexual couples. 25% disagree; 10% gave no opinion.
	Persons with a higher educational level, women, and urban dwellers tend to be more supportive of SSM. Residents of the Prairies are less supportive.
	46% -- almost half -- of Canadian adults are "leaning to the Liberal party."

They sorted data by political party affiliation:

Party affiliation	Concerning new definition of marriage	Concerning having no legal status for SSM
Liberal	51% support	12% support
Progressive Conservative	44% support	24% support
Canadian Alliance	66% oppose	37% support

They also sorted data by region of the country and sex:

Unfortunately, these data is of limited usefulness because the percentage who had no opinion were not included. _3,4

Polling data collected later in 2003 is contained in the next essay

References:

1. "What Canadians think about gay issues," The Globe and Mail, 2003-JUN-11, Page A4.
2. Susan Lazaruk, "Poll finds even split on same-sex unions. Research group reveals hot political issue also divides significantly along age lines," CanWest News Service, 2003-SEP-8, at: http://www.canada.com/
3. "Poll shows Canadians split over same-sex marriage," CBC News, 2003-SEP-4, at: http://www.cbc.ca/
4. "Public divided about definition of marriage," NFO World Group, 2003-SEP-5, at:  http://www.cbc.ca/ This is a PDF file.

Copyright © 2003 to 2016 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally published: 2003-AUG-31
Latest update: 2016-JUL-20
Author: B.A. Robinson

Web ReligiousTolerance.org

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