HARDING: “TAKING THE PULSE” ON COMPASSION AND SUSTAINABI

[Oscar]

“TAKING THE PULSE” ON COMPASSION AND SUSTAINABILITY – Part I

BY Jim Harding Published in R-Town News November 9, 2012

Recently University of Saskatchewan researchers were commissioned by the Leader Post, Star Phoenix and CBC to do lengthy telephone interviews of 1,750 randomly-selected Saskatchewan people over 18 years old to see what they thought about a wide range of issues. The “Taking the Pulse” findings need a careful look after the hasty, sometimes superficial handling by the mainstream media.

These findings suggest that the so-called “new Saskatchewan” is still a lot like the “old Saskatchewan” and not a lot like what the politicians who lead or want to lead Saskatchewan may think. The researchers found differences by age and education, demographics, cultural background and socio-economic strata; this was to be expected. But overall, the findings and trends, to the extent these can be ascertained, don’t confirm stereotypes that some might think go hand in hand with the political shift over recent decades from NDP to Sask Party governments.

NOT “SOCIALLY CONSERVATIVE”

In spite of Saskatchewan sending so many Harper Conservative MP’s to Ottawa, we are not a socially conservative province. There are some signs of this ideology in particular clusters of people here, but when you compile all the relevant results, Saskatchewan still looks like a moderate, progressive place. Even on one of the most contentious “moral-legal” issues we are like most of Canada; 70% here support the right of the woman to choose when it comes to a decision about abortion, which is up from a decade ago. And 67% support the right to have a same-sex marriage. Women tend to be more supportive at 74%.

Attitudes to marijuana show that 77% support legalization for medical purposes. There were somewhat surprising results about so-called “assisted suicide” - 56% now support the right of a terminally ill patient to die. This view had stronger support among people under 54.

Is it an anomaly that 55% want to reintroduce capital punishment?
However even in criminal justice there are signs of change, perhaps as the dark side of Harper’s correction’s policies come into the light. In spite of decades of the politicization of crime, Saskatchewan people remain mostly moderate. While nearly half, more so women, believe crime has remained the same in their neigbourhood, though the evidence is that the crime rate has been falling, the overwhelming majority of people (92%) report feeling safe in their neighbourhood. Most (83%) are satisfied with the police. This satisfaction falls to 61% for aboriginal residents, who probably feel less safe because they are less safe and deserve more culturally sensitive policing. While 25% of Saskatchewan people still see stiffer sentences as the main way to tackle crime, a larger number favour prevention (18%) or addressing social inequalities (17%) which equals 35%.

Attitudes towards immigration also don’t denote social conservatism. A huge majority (93%) believe the province is welcoming to immigrants and that immigrants make valuable contributions to our province (87%). Remember that the experience of both past and recent immigrants are factored in. The vast majority of people express some sympathy towards the plight of immigrants - 86% believe there should be more recognition for their trades and professional credentials. Nor is there a rigid attitude towards cultural homogenization - 73% believe immigrants should retain their cultural heritage. It’s very encouraging, with all the geo-political fundamentalism at play, that over half (53%) believe that we are making strides in reducing ethic/racial tensions.

Some attitudes on “aboriginal issues” were also progressive. A large majority (74%) believe aboriginal people will continue to contribute more to the economy. A large majority support policies and presumably expenditures to raise educational levels (72%) and housing standards (70%) among aboriginal residents.

CALL FOR COMPASSION

We still see signs of a post-colonial rift and probably a need for more information when taxes and self-government are broached. Nearly two-thirds (63%) continue to think aboriginal people don’t pay enough taxes and only 44% believe that self-government is important. Aboriginal respondents, understandably, do not share these views.

We also see a mixed view regarding family health and wellbeing. The results suggest there’s major denial about the extent of mental health issues among the young in our families (67%) and problems such as dementia (54%) within our aging population, though a majority (56%) do recognize that serious alcohol-related problems exist in our communities. The majority still seem unaware that we have one of the highest HIV and obesity rates in the country. The big differences, where aboriginal residents are more than twice as likely to recognize HIV/AIDS as a community problem, partly reflect critical differences in health status and risks. This is a call for greater understanding and compassion.

Compassion is shown by large support (68%) for higher taxes to ensure that prescription drugs are more affordable. This view carries over to the economy, where 69% believe in progressive taxation, where rates are higher for higher income groups as a means to bring lower income families above the poverty line. The percentage of aboriginal people supporting this is even higher (79%). Meanwhile, seeming somewhat contradictory, 69% oppose shifting our tax system away from sales or consumption taxes which hurt poorer families more. A similar majority (68%) is also opposed to any reduction in collective bargaining rights. There is fairly strong evidence that the values of social justice, human solidarity and caring for our neighbours have resisted 30 years of the neo-liberal view stressing “me-first-ism”.

The provincial survey found that 87% were somewhat optimistic about job opportunities, though this went down with lower-income people. Obviously those left behind by the resource boom will not be among the majority on this matter. Even with the growing recognition that Saskatchewan faces a problem of affordable housing, 68% still say they think housing is affordable. As with matters of public safety and health status, the apparent disconnect is likely explained by people facing very differing realities, which is again a call for understanding and compassion.

TOWARDS ONE SASKATCHEWAN

These findings don’t paint a picture of Saskatchewan as an ultra-conservative, “me-first” place; we seem to remain a moderate, progressive population. One could even say that “social democratic” values are persisting in spite of the growing inequality from the multi-national corporate resource “boom”.

Skeptics will rightly ask whether these results are predictive of behavior: in the crunch is Saskatchewan truly a tolerant, moderate, progressive and caring place? And if so, why aren’t our governing politicians doing more in this regards? And how much do these apparently progressive, caring attitudes depend on a “strong” economy, i.e. would we see more “racism” and scapegoating if there was no longer a labour shortage?

Differences in terms of age and the trend-line of upcoming generations are vital to our future, as are trends among and about the quickly growing First Nations and Métis populations. And while more “socially conservative” views were found in rural than urban areas, these are not the views of a rural majority. As we move towards “one Saskatchewan” perhaps politicians will have less of a chance to play any one group off against others.

Some hard questions remain. How is it, with Saskatchewan people maintaining the values of social justice, that the NDP has lost so much political ground? Just what happened that it became an inner city-northern based party rather than Saskatchewan-wide? Did burned out politicians perhaps buy into the neo-liberal myth and become less progressive and compassionate than grass-roots Saskatchewan? Is it possible that predominantly progressive, compassionate people began to think they were alone? That without political champions clearly articulating these values, wedge politics divided us enough that we stopped seeing the bigger picture?

Or is something else, a difficult and often confusing shift towards respecting and protecting eco-systems, also going on?

In Part 2 I’ll look at how this survey mishandles the challenges of sustainability.