Canadians and Their Pasts Survey Findings

Study Design, Main Findings and ‘Region:’ the “Canadians and Their Pasts” Surveyat 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

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

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

Questionnaire Sections 1 general interest in the past 2 activities related to the past (engagement) 3 understanding the past (connectedness) 4 trustworthiness of sources on the past 5 importance of various pasts 6 sense of the past 7 biographical data 8 questions unique to supplemental samples

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

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?

Engagement: 1 * % figures, this and remaining slides, national sample (3,119 observations), weighted data

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

Engagement & Education: 1 * significant in regression model

Engagement & Education: 2 * significant in regression model

Interest in Various Pasts/Histories * The ‘not interested’ percent includes ‘not very interested,’ ‘not at all interested’ and those who did not answer the question

Importance of Various Pasts * 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%

Most Important Past

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)

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)

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)

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

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

Regions Identified by Respondents: 2

Current Province of Residence Same as Province of Birth (stayers) % figures, national sample, excludes not born in Canada, 2,538 observations, weighted data

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

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

Past of Province & Canada Rated ‘Very Important’ for Stayers

Past of Province & Canada Rated ‘Very Important’ for Leavers

‘Very Interested’ in Three Pasts by Stayers and Leavers * difference is statistically significant (regression)

Pasts rated ‘Very Important’ by Stayers and Movers * difference is statistically significant (regression)

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

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 stay

Acknowledgements From the Pasts Team Margaret Conrad Jocelyn Létourneau From ISR John Pollard Mirka Ondrack Hugh McCague

Canadians and Their Pasts Survey Findings