OTTAWA—The environment has surged into a top-ranking concern for Canadian voters ahead of the federal election this fall, according to a new national poll. The survey from Forum Research found that 26 per cent of respondents chose the environment when asked to identify the most important issue in the coming federal campaign, placing it at the top of a list of options provided in the poll. Coming second was the economy, which was identified as a top concern by 25 per cent of respondents, while 16 per cent chose health care as their top concern. The interactive phone survey of 1,812 adults was conducted over three days from June 28 to 30. Results are considered accurate within a margin of error of plus or minus 3 per cent, 19 times out of 20. A similar survey from February — albeit with a smaller sample size — found 15 per cent of respondents put the environment at the top of their list of concerns, a seeming shift that suggest voters are paying more attention to the political debate around climate change and extreme weather events ahead of the vote, said Forum President Lorne Bozinoff. “This is quite a shift… Normally the perennial number one and two are the economy and health care,” Bozinoff said.Read more:Alberta government’s $2.5-million inquiry into anti-oilsands funding won’t find anything new, environmental groups say Ottawa and P.E.I. spending $14.5M to build climate change research centreExpert panel prioritizes Canada’s climate risks for federal governmentHe said he believes a number of factors have combined to drive concern for the environment, including a bruising political argument over the federal government’s carbon price-and-rebate system that has been imposed in four provinces this year against the will of their right-leaning administrations. But Bozinoff suggested the biggest factor is the increasing frequency of extreme weather, such as the major flooding this spring in Ontario, Quebec ...
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