What Canadians really want
Posted Mar 28, 2012 1:53 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Canadians say they hope Thursday’s federal budget will help the jobless and ease pain at the gas pumps.
An Angus-Reid survey of a thousand Canadians reveals three in five believe the government should try to balance the budget, even if it means reduced spending on services.
“We asked them, do you think this budget is going to have a positive or negative impact on you?,” Angus Reid’s Jaideep Mukerji tells 660News, noting that there were inconsistencies in the poll. “There’s a large number of Canadians that recognize that balancing that budget is actually going to involve some pain and they might feel it at a personal level.”
“They want a balanced budget,” adds Mukerji who says only five per cent of Canadians believe the budget will have a positive impact on them. “They want to get rid of the deficit. They realize there’ll be some sort of sacrifice to get there, but none of the specific measures seems to be taking — other than maybe some of the peripheral ones or smaller ones, such as cut the public sector — seems to generate a lot of support.”
We’ll learn all the details about the budget Thursday afternoon when it’s released by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty at 2pm Mountain time. Join 660News for extensive team coverage from Ottawa and reaction from here in Calgary.
