Study Design, Main Findings
and ‘Region:’ the “Canadians
and Their Pasts” Survey
at the Association of Canadian
Studies Conference
David Northrup
Institute for Social Research, York University, Toronto, Ontario
Moncton, November 5, 2009
Outline of Talk
 how we did the survey
 three of our main findings
 set the stage for the rest of the session
 review the results of questions we had in the
survey about region
 compare and contrast respondents who
reside in their province of birth versus those
who live in a different province

how these respondents vary in how they answer the
region questions
2
Study Design
 National Telephone Survey (3,419)

RDD sample & next birthday selection
 Sample Components
 national sample: 5 regions of 400 interviews (2,000)
 major urban area sample, 1,000 interviews (Montreal,
Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver)
 Supplemental Samples (100 each):
 Aboriginals (Saskatoon and area), Acadians
(Dieppe, Petit-Rocher, and Caraquet), recent
immigrants (Peel)
 Data Collection
 over 19 months at ISR and Jolicoeur
 55% response rate
3
Questionnaire
 75-80 questions, depending on answers to
previous questions
 took, on average, 23 minutes to complete

National 22, Aboriginal 28, Peel 26, Acadians 23
 mostly closed-ended (forced choice) questions
 11 open-ended questions
 more qualitative, more respondent-centred, no a
priori list of answers
 taped and transcribed
 91% of all respondents gave permission to tape
their answers to the open-ended questions
4
Questionnaire Sections
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
general interest in the past
activities related to the past (engagement)
understanding the past (connectedness)
trustworthiness of sources on the past
importance of various pasts
sense of the past
biographical data
questions unique to supplemental samples
5
New Brunswick
and Quebec Samples
 National Sample





Quebec Provincial Sample, n = 643
New Brunswick Provincial Sample, n = 104
RDD samples & next birthday selection
sample distributed across the province in the same way as
the population
considerable confidence can generalize to the population
 Acadian Survey




100 people
Dieppe, Petit-Rocher, and Caraquet
targeted sample of three communities, random selection of
respondent in household
a snapshot of part of a larger community
6
Acadian Survey
 Same as national survey with 3 additional questions:
1) In the last five years did you participate in any
activities that celebrated or commemorated
Acadian heritage and history?
2) Which activities involving Acadian heritage or
history did you participate in?
3) Could you please tell us what you might have
learned about your Acadian background through
these activities?
7
Engagement: 1
Family History
% yes*
Public History
% yes
photographs
83
movies
78
heirlooms
74
books
53
places (family past)
57
historic sites
49
scrapbook, cookbook,
diary, other family history
56
museums
43
family tree
20
Internet
40
computer history games
8
archives
15
other activities
25
* % figures, this and remaining slides, national sample (3,119 observations), weighted data
8
Engagement: 2
 almost all Canadians engage in activities where they
encounter the past





99% engage in at least one activity
56% engage in more than five activities
average number of activities = 6 (out of 13)
44% engage in the three most common family-related
activities (photos and heirloom and scrapbook, cookbook,
diary, other family history)
25% have read a book about the past and visited a museum
and visited a historic site
 very high participation rates for family activities
 lower participation rates for public history activities
9
Engagement & Education: 1
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
museums* hist sites* internet*
less than hs
high school
* significant in regression model
books*
movies*
post high school
archives*
university
10
Engagement & Education: 2
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
photos
heirlooms*
less than hs
fam places
high school
* significant in regression model
scrapbooks,
etc.*
fam tree*
post high school
games
university
11
Interest in Various
Pasts/Histories
Type of
past/History
in general
family
Canada
very
somewhat
interested interested
33
52
32
52
39
54
not
interested*
Total
%
15
9
14
100
100
100
* The ‘not interested’ percent includes ‘not very interested,’ ‘not at all
interested’ and those who did not answer the question
12
Importance of Various Pasts
Past
very
somewhat
* not
Total
important important important percent
family
66
33
1
100
religion or spiritual
tradition
ethno/cultural group
32
33
35
100
39
42
19
100
province
35
50
15
100
region**
21
19
60
100
Canada
42
48
10
100
* The ‘not important’ percent includes ‘not very important,’ ‘not at all important’
and those who did not answer the question
** very important % only for those who identified a region = 47%
13
Most Important Past
60%
40%
20%
0%
none
birth
country
region
ethno
cultural
religion
family
Canada province
14
Family Might have been
Part of a Larger History
. . . mostly because the family have been in Canada for so
many generations and I think it's important that we . . . that
those of us that are alive today, are able to understand where
we came from and what part we might have played in history
- whether it was the fur trade or the Red River settlement and
rebellions, and stuff like that.
male, senior, BA, living in the Gulf Islands of BC (id 1407922)
15
Family Caught up in
a Larger History
That was 50 years ago, we came as refugees to Canada from
Hungary where we escaped from the Revolution . . . 200,000
Hungarians escaped at that time and I had a five and a seven
year old child . . . it was a very, very dramatic escape . . . We
just celebrated the 50th anniversary . . . of the uprising of the
revolution . . . A book [was] published and our family story
is . . . in that book. This is most important event in my life . .
. and it changed the whole future of the family . . . I mean,
we never would come to Canada or leave the country if there
was no revolution, the Russian repression. So I saw
dramatic change in our lives . . . this is the most important . .
. [it] changed my whole life.
woman, senior, MA, professor of music living in Hamilton (id 1403392)
16
Family and Feeling
Connected to the Past
My mother-in-law died, we were looking through photographs to
gather up some pictures to have at the wake… my uncle did a
family tree, and he wrote stories of the community and . . .
stories about family members who moved away . . . We have an
old heritage house . . . that I've inherited . . It is full of lots of
antiques and . . . old family things . . . it's a sense of history that
you're passing on to your family and . . . I think it's important to
know . . . where you came from, . . . the house is 160 years old
and . . . it was built by my ancestors and of course, many, many
generations have lived in that house, and [it] makes you feel, you
know, connected, going through all the . . . old pictures and all
the old clippings and old scrapbooks and things that were there.
woman, mid-fifties, BA, retail manager, small town in PEI (id 1400457)
17
Three Findings
 most Canadians engage the past in many different ways
family history predominates
 making, preserving, interpreting and consuming
family history
 more participation in passive rather than active activities
 education is a powerful predictor of engagement
 to a lesser extent, so is gender
 the past of most interest, the past of most importance, and
those activities related to the past that Canadians are most
likely to be engaged in, are activities related to the past of
the individual and their family

18
Regions Identified
by Respondents: 1
 Is there a particular region of Canada you identify
with or feel a part of?


Yes = 78%
limited provincial variation but higher in PQ (87%) and
lower in Ontario (70%)
 What is that region?
 province of residence = 44%
(of those who identified with a
region, or 34% all respondents)



province, other than province of residence = 6%
city of residence = 4%
city, other than city of residence = 7%
 these 4 ‘regions’ total 61% of the responses
19
Regions Identified by
Respondents: 2
region
%
region
%
southern Ontario
4.7
La Mauricie
.6
the prairies
4.5
Eastern Townships
.6
the west
3.7
the Rockies
.5
northern Ontario
2.6
Okanagan
.5
Maritimes
2.1
Charlevoix
.4
Atlantic Canada
1.4
Pacific Coast
.3
east/down east/east coast
1.4
Peace River
.3
Saguenay/Lac-St-Jean
1.3
the North
.3
south west Ontario
.8
lower mainland (BC)
.3
Le Bas-Saint-Laurent
.8
Acadia
.2
20
Current Province of Residence
Same as Province of Birth (stayers)
Province/Region
% stayers
% movers
Atlantic Canada
82
18
Quebec
99
1
Ontario
88
12
Manitoba & Saskatchewan
81
19
Alberta
55
45
British Columbia
55
45
Canada
83
17
% figures, national sample, excludes not born in Canada, 2,538 observations, weighted data
21
Stayers and Leavers and
Demographics
 leavers have higher levels of education
 most of the difference is accounted for by more
university degree holders in the leavers group
 leavers have higher incomes
 more leavers in the $120,000 or more group
 no difference between movers and stayers with
respect to gender, having children or coming from a
rural or urban area
 limited difference with respect to age

over representation of movers in the 51 to 64 age
range
22
Stayers and Leavers and
Atlantic Canada Regions
 in Atlantic Canada 80% said they identified with or
felt part of a region, in the rest of the country the
comparable figure is 78%
 49% of Atlantic Canadian leavers said they
identified with either Atlantic Canada, the
Maritimes or Down East
 32% of Atlantic Canadian stayers said they
identified with these regions
 25% of Atlantic Canadian leavers identified with
their province
 50% of Atlantic Canadian stayers identified with
their province
23
Past of Province & Canada
Rated ‘Very Important’ for Stayers
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Nfld PEI
Province
NS
NB
Canada
PQ
Ont Man Sask Alb
BC
24
Past of Province & Canada
Rated ‘Very Important’ for Leavers
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Nfld PEI
Province
NS
NB
Canada
PQ
Ont Man Sask Alb
BC
25
‘Very Interested’ in Three Pasts
by Stayers and Leavers
60%
40%
20%
0%
past (in general)*
Stayers
Leavers
family*
Canada*
* difference is statistically significant (regression)
26
Pasts rated ‘Very Important’
by Stayers and Movers
60%
Stayers
Leavers
40%
20%
0%
family
region
religion
* difference is statistically significant (regression)
ethno
culutral
province*
Canada*
27
Tentative Findings: Region 1
 few Canadians (in percentage terms) identify with a
traditional Canadian region

the exception (as Létourneau will argue) is Quebec
 those who identify regions, identify many
 most regions are geographically small
 typically most regions are not political or administrative units
 regions are ‘real’ but they are also ‘imagined,’ regions of the
mind, regions where place and community overlap
 people who move within the country do have higher
education and incomes than stayers, but are no more likely to
come from rural areas, to have kids or to vary (much) by age
28
Tentative Findings: Region 2
 even after ‘controlling for’ education and income, leavers are
more likely to say:


they are interested in the past of Canada,
that the past of Canada is very important to them
 leavers are less likely to say the past of the province of birth
was important to them
 Atlantic Canadians who leave their province of birth are more
likely to identify with ‘the east’ as a region than those who
continue to reside in their province of birth
 when it comes to interest in and importance of the past,
identity for those who leave is not the same as for those who
29
stay
Acknowledgements
From the Pasts Team
Margaret Conrad
Jocelyn Létourneau
From ISR
John Pollard
Mirka Ondrack
Hugh McCague
30