SURVEY PURPOSE and CONTENT

The WHY:

  • To prompt us to think about what’s most important to us about Canada
  • To engage as many Canadians as possible in conversations about our values and learning about what matters to each other

Ultimately, our purpose is to foster the future for Canada that Canadians want most and to do so in a way that promotes mutual understanding and appreciation across diversities—where we live, where we come from, and how we make our living. By responding to the survey you are agreeing to contribute to this purpose.

There are several surveys of human values used in the world, but they are not designed to engage citizens in discussions about what their choices mean in real terms.  Conventional surveys based on carefully defined choices are designed to provide mostly answers; this survey, based on the Barrett Values Centre’s National Values Assessment, is not a conventionally validated instrument.  Instead, it invites respondents to provide own their meanings for their selections and to raise key questions for discussion with others.  It is a survey designed to promote conversation.

 

The WHAT:

  • The survey asks three primary questions:
    • The Current You. What matters most to you in your life? What are your top personal values, right now?
    • Our Current Canada. What values, behaviours and practices do you see being lived and expressed in Canada every day, right now?
    • Our Future Canada. What are the most important values, behaviours and practices that Canada needs and should live by going forward into the future?
  • And a series of demographic questions that help us recognize our similarities and respect our differences as Canadians.

This year’s survey began with an ‘online’ research panel in both official languages of 2168 people that is representative of online Canadians within +/- 2%-points on sex, age, region, first language, education, household income, immigrant/birth status, religious affiliation, and neighborhood geographic density. You are participating in the open phase of the survey.  You have a choice about completing all or just parts of the demographic section of the survey, but we hope that you will so that we can include your choices in the overall survey results while maintaining its overall representativeness.