Most Atlantic Canadians Support Reopening Atlantic Bubble
HALIFAX — New research shows Atlantic Canadians overwhelmingly support reopening the Atlantic Bubble.
Halifax’s Narrative Research polled close to 3,000 Atlantic Canadians last month and found strong support for loosening border restrictions within the Atlantic provinces.
Narrative’s poll shows that 84 percent of Atlantic Canadian support reopening the bubble. That stands in contrast to the 84 percent who oppose opening borders with the United States and close to 70 percent who don’t want to open to the rest of Canada.
Narrative collected the data just before Covid-19 case counts began rising in the region and the opening of the Atlantic Bubble was pushed back. However, Narrative’s Margaret Brigley says those changes likely haven’t moved public opening dramatically.
“I certainly would not expect public opinion to be significantly lower, to the same extent as what we see for travel restrictions across other provinces [or] outside the country,” she said.
Narrative’s research does show Atlantic Canadians are far more hesitant about opening our borders to regions beyond the Atlantic provinces.
For example, 84 percent of people oppose opening to the United States.
Although opposition to open borders with the U.S. has dropped slightly since last summer, Brigley says most people won’t be comfortable with the idea until they see full vaccination rollouts, vaccinated travellers, and consistently low Covid-19 case counts.
Most people are also against opening Atlantic Canadian borders to the rest of Canada
Narrative’s survey found 67 percent of people were against the idea. However, Brigley says that number is likely much higher now.
“I would certainly say without hesitation that if we were to ask this question now, keeping in mind the last two weeks and what’s happened, this, this would be dramatically higher,” she says.
“When you look at the situation in Ontario or Alberta or Saskatchewan, it’s just very fearful right now and I think Atlantic Canadians recognize that.”
The Covid-19 pandemic is raging in Ontario, with the province reporting thousands of new cases each day for the past several days. Within the last week, the province recorded its most cases ever in a single day.
Brigley says that situation is weighing on Atlantic Canadians and their comfort opening to the rest of Canada, or to the US, versus opening the Atlantic Bubble.
“Something we have heard is loud and clear is that Atlantic Canadians overall feel more comfortable in the region than they do outside the region,” she says.
“People recognize and appreciate that in Atlantic Canada we’ve done some things very well in relation to Covid-19 and how we’ve managed it. I think that has created a sense of comfort within this region that Atlantic Canadians don’t have outside,” she adds.