February 28, 2020
A new poll suggests Canadians are increasingly hostile to Iran as a result of the shootdown of a Ukrainian airliner with 57 Canadians on board.
The Ipsos poll, released February 5, one month after the shootdown, showed 76 percent of Canadians surveyed would support increased sanctions against the Iranian government, while 89 percent said they wanted Canada to press Iran to pay damages to Canadian families affected by the plane crash.
The poll was conducted on behalf of Global News between January 24 and 27, interviewing a sample of 1,000 Canadians aged 18 years and up online.
It found strong support for a hardline position among voters of every one of Canada’s four major parties—the Conservatives, the ruling Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois.
“What we get out of this survey is, as of right now, Canadians want to see that the government is standing up for Canadians and are asking the Iranian government to respond in some way to what happened rather than to just show resolve on the part of the Canadian government,” said Sebastien Dallaire, Ipsos’ premier vice-president.
Six in 10 of respondents said they would support re-establishing formal diplomatic ties with Iran, like re-opening a Canadian embassy. Relations were severed in 2012 by the previous Conservative government.
On this issue, support was divided among party lines. While a majority of Liberal voters (66 percent), NDP (69 percent), and Bloc (63 per cent) voters supported this course of action, only 47 percent of Conservative voters said they would like to re-establish formal ties with Iran.
“We’re at the stage in this overall situation where what we’re noticing is Canadians want some action taken now and maybe establishing better relationships with the Iranian government comes in second place right now, even though there’s still a majority of Canadians who want to normalize relations,” Dallaire said.
Based on the results of the poll, Dallaire said the “message is one of wanting to be in a position of strength and making demands.”
Canada’s relationship with Iran has been fraught over the last two decades, starting in 2003 when Iranian-Canadian photographer Zahra Kazemi was beaten to death at Evin Prison. Canada then started sponsoring the annual human rights resolution in the UN condemning Iran. Iran has often appeared more hostile to Canada than the US since then.
In 2012, the Conservatives broke relations with Tehran. Though most viewed that as a political decision, the Foreign Ministry was under pressure to cut its budget at the time and it was later learned that officials in the ministry recommended closing the embassy to save money since the Iranian government wouldn’t give Canada even the time of day and the embassy served little purpose.
During the 2015 national parliamentary campaign, the Liberal Party announced its willingness to restore diplomatic ties with Iran. More than four years later, nothing has happened.