August 17, 2020 – Canadians overwhelmingly prefer that the federal government contract with Canadian companies (82%) rather than Amazon (7%) in order to distribute COVID-19 related goods, like personal protective equipment (PPE), to Canadians and Canadian institutions. This survey result provides further evidence that the trend toward localism – which has been accelerated by the pandemic – makes “Buy Canadian” a default position for federal procurement, wherever possible.
These are some of the recently-released findings from an online survey conducted by Pollara Strategic Insights amongst a randomly-selected, reliable sample of N=1,912 adult Canadians. These results are from the May 21– May 25, 2020 wave of Economic Dashboard – Pollara’s ongoing national economic syndicated study available to subscribers. Online samples cannot officially be assigned a margin of error. A probability sample of this size carries a margin of error of ± 2.2%, 19 times out of 20. The dataset was statistically weighted by current gender, age, & region Census data, in order to ensure the sample reflects the actual population of adult Canadians.
The survey also found that nine-in-ten (90%) Canadians agree that the federal government should encourage the public to buy from Canadian companies in order to better support the country’s businesses and economy as they recover from the impacts of COVID-19. Moreover, 83% support the federal government encouraging the public to Buy Canadian instead of buying from Amazon in order to better assist the economic recovery.
Three-quarters (75%) of Canadians also feel that Amazon cannot guarantee COVID-free products because they sub-contract delivery to other companies.
For additional results and survey details, please see the report excerpt.
