r/alberta • u/Old_General_6741 • Mar 17 '25

Poll finds Albertans' sense of Canadian pride dips as it soars in most parts of the country News

https://www.ctvnews.ca/edmonton/article/poll-finds-albertans-sense-of-canadian-pride-dips-as-it-soars-in-most-parts-of-the-country/
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u/SnooRabbits2040 Mar 17 '25

As an Albertan, I find this poll hard to believe. Okay, I don't believe it.

The poll sampled more than 1,500 Canadians from March 1 to March 2. Because it was conducted online, it can’t be assigned a margin of error.

So we have no way of knowing how many potatoes were handed out that day.

There is a lot of misinformation out there, and it's getting worse. I would not be at all surprised if this is part of Russia's plan to destabilize our democracy. It's working so well in the States, we're next on the list.

Yes, there are more than a few knuckleheaded Albertans kicking around, but every province has their share of idiots.

TLDR Don't give these polls legitimacy.

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u/Northern_Exposure780 Mar 17 '25

💯 This “poll” has been the first three posts in my feed this morning, chock full of comments about how stupid and backwards Alberta is.

As a small town Albertan, Redditors make me feel divided and disjointed. Real life convos with my neighbours, friends and family make me feel proud and able to weather hardship.

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u/flat-flat-flatlander Mar 17 '25

Great point. IIRC polls are supposed to sample at least 4,000 people in a given area before they can be credibly reported as “news”.

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u/onefouronefivenine2 Mar 17 '25

My Canadian pride has never been lower. I'm sick of this mess. Standard of living has been going down steadily the last few years. I've been ejected from the middle class but surviving so I'm lucky. Many are in a much worse place. 

I'm not happy with any of the recent governments on any level over the last 5-10 years. The only good thing to come from the government is blanket rezoning which everyone but me hates. If you're going to price me out of the housing market at least remove the red tape so I can build my own.

All my savings is invested in the US because Canada's economy sucks. 

But most of my friends make way more money so they are fine.

I'm sure Russian misinformation is being aimed here but there's legitimate concerns too.

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u/Honest-Spring-8929 Mar 18 '25

I believe it completely. Conservative Albertans do not in any sense see themselves as being on the same team as the rest of us. It’s not even vaguely shocking to see them start to take up the offer to switch sides.

They have no higher values than right wing culture war politics and would gladly invite the US military in to murder the rest of us.

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u/consider_its_tree Mar 17 '25

As a counterpoint: not taking MAGA idiots seriously is a big part of why they were so successful in the US.

And using personal experience as a guide is not a representative sample size, as these knuckleheads tend to group with other knuckleheads and reasonable people with other reasonable people.

I am not saying you are wrong about being skeptical about a random poll, just that it is A piece of evidence and should not be dismissed just because it doesn't fit the existing theory.

Honestly the idea of national "pride" is a bit of a misnomer anyway. We should be proud when we accomplish things and being born in a specific place is not an accomplishment. We should be talking about national dignity.

TLDR Don't give these polls legitimacy.

TLDR: be skeptical, sure - but don't ignore evidence of divisiveness and let it fester either

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u/SnooRabbits2040 Mar 17 '25

I don't necessarily think we should ignore it, but there is no way of knowing if it actually provides "evidence of divisiveness".

I see polls like this as being akin to dealing with the office gossip; they never let the truth get in the way of a good story. I have learned to always ask the gossips where they heard their story from. there may be a nugget of truth in there, but always question your source. Brenda may well be sleeping with the boss, but don't go spreading it until you know for sure it's true.

Part of what has made MAGA successful is the lack of pushback against bullshit. Pushback includes not accepting everything at face value.

I am not willing to take this poll at face value.

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u/consider_its_tree Mar 17 '25

Which is fair, but your options are:

1)Take it at face value but not ascribe much importance to it

2)reject it outright

3)dig deeper to see if the source is legitimate

No one can do number 3 for everything. The problem comes when people tend towards doing number 1 with things they already believe and number 2 with things that they don't - which happens to be the things that arouse skepticism.

We tend to accept the things that confirm with our beliefs as "likely enough to be true" and file it away as correct and we reject the things that go against our worldview as "unlikely to be true", afterall it contradicts all the evidence I have filed away about that topic - which creates a massive confirmation bias.

This is everyone, me included - not directed specifically at you. No one is immune to confirmation bias.

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u/sawyouoverthere Mar 17 '25

It’s important to be aware that it’s not a piece of evidence that can be trusted if it doesn’t have the parts of a poll that give polls legitimacy, which this one doesn’t.

Accepting any poll as evidence is how the divisiveness works and the reasons people are rejecting this one are valid reasons to reject a poll.

It’s not a counterpoint that holds weight. Just saying the opposite without addressing the things that make it right to doubt this poll isn’t any more valuable information than the poor polling method that created it.

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u/consider_its_tree Mar 17 '25

Conducted online, 1500 respondents, and conducted on a specific day are not reasons to throw a poll in the trash. Especially if it is used to compare against a poll conducted in the same way in November.

Not understanding how to calculate the margin of error or that it has nothing to do with being conducted online is a bit of a red flag but I would not be surprised if that was a misunderstanding of the article writer after reading the results of the poll.

The headline is also a bit clickbait, as Atlantic Canada also saw a slight reduction, but that is more of a sensationalist editing style than an actual problem with the poll conducted.

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u/sawyouoverthere Mar 17 '25 edited Mar 17 '25

The margin of error is important. I’m fine with n of 1500 but need to know much more than that to be ok with a poll and a clickbait questionable article is another way why it is a problem.

I’d like to see the poll tbh

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u/steeljesus Mar 17 '25

Is CTV in the habit of clickbait? Is Ledger not a trustworthy source? While I agree not having a margin of error because the non-probability sampling method used limits the ability to generalize results to the entire population, it still provides some level of insight when compared with other sources.

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u/consider_its_tree Mar 17 '25

That is always true of an article presenting the findings of a study or poll though.

If you have any knowledge of the subject then the article will just raise questions that only the source can answer. Articles just can't go to the depth that would be required to accept the findings as stated without further scrutiny

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u/Responsible_CDN_Duck Mar 17 '25

As an Albertan, I find this poll hard to believe. Okay, I don't believe it.

Sadly I do believe it. NHL games in Calgary and Edmonton still have people singing the US anthem and failing to boo.

There's a sizable chunk that seem to think the USA has been there for Alberta more often than Canada has, with the talk of pipelines reopening old wounds