When Canadians are asked to name the most important issue facing the country, inflation and the cost of living have topped the charts for a few years. Healthcare comes in second or third, vying with international relations for those places on the list. Ipsos tracks the answers monthly in Canada and 29 other countries in their report “What Worries the World”. Violence, crime, unemployment, poverty and social inequality feature prominently after inflation when results are taken in aggregate.
This event in February of this year only 3% of Canadians listed the environment as their top concern, placing the issue about ninth on the list. That compares with it being the primary worry of 13% of Canadians in the summer of 2021. Clearly a lot of domestic and global issues have evolved in the interim.
This year may be defined by a disconnect in climate action; while the vast majority (71%) of Canadians believe we are heading towards environmental disaster, the issue has been sidelined by more immediate concerns.
How we answer the question of what worries us is largely contextual. Our demographic, socioeconomic status and lived experience all factor in. I’m curious about doctors’ concerns about the environment, and I encourage you to take the short Planetary Health Survey developed by Dr. Douglas Courtemanche, pediatric plastic surgeon and environmental activist. The anonymized results will be written up at a later time for your review. Thank you in advance.
