With rage at governments, the economy and current events playing out wildly on social media and at protests, it wouldn’t take a data scientist to determine that Canadians are angry. But a new study aims to track and quantify rabies holistically.
Canadian research consultancy Pollara Strategic Insights has launched a ‘rage index’, hoping to gauge the mood of Canadians each month.
The tracker polls thousands of respondents for insights into views on hot topics, including inflation, government policy decisions and the economic outlook.
Of the 2,013 respondents surveyed between July 25 and August 2, 48% said they were upset with political decisions in Ottawa and 83% with inflation rates. Additionally, 79% of participants said they were unhappy with rising gas prices and 55% were unhappy with the current state of the housing market.
Dan Arnold, chief strategy officer at Pollara Strategic Insights, succinctly summarized the findings: “A lot of people seem grumpy right now,” he told CTV News Channel on Monday.
“I think coming out of this pandemic, we kind of hoped it would be like a ‘D-Day’ moment, where there would be this euphoria, but instead there seems to be a lot of frustration that has kind of built up over the past couple of years [which] now bubbles to the surface in different ways.
Arnold said economic pressure is at the “top level” of Canadians’ frustration.
“You have eight out of 10 people who are angry about inflation and gas prices,” he said.
“I think it’s something that affects everyone. Not everyone needs a passport or flies, but everyone buys [food] at the grocery store. And when you see the prices going up, and you see that every week when you go to fill your cart, it really happens to people.
According to the main findings of the report, feelings of intense rage are still “limited to a vocal minority”.
“I think it’s something we want to follow in the future to see how it changes over time,” Arnold said.
He added: “We want to see if this frustration turns into intense rage over time. And of course we hope that will not be the case.