Study Design, Main Findings and Region: the Canadians and Their Pasts Survey at the Association of C

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Study Design, Main Findings and
Region the Canadians and Their
Pasts Survey at the Association of
Canadian Studies Conference

• David Northrup
• Institute for Social Research, York University,
  Toronto, Ontario
• Moncton, November 5, 2009

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Outline of Talk

• how we did the survey
• three of our main findings
• set the stage for the rest of the session
• review the results of questions we had in the
  survey about region
• compare and contrast respondents who reside in
  their province of birth versus those who live in
  a different province
• how these respondents vary in how they answer the
  region questions

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Study Design

• National Telephone Survey (3,419)
• RDD sample next birthday selection
• Sample Components
• national sample 5 regions of 400 interviews
  (2,000)
• major urban area sample, 1,000 interviews
  (Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and
  Vancouver)
• Supplemental Samples (100 each)
• Aboriginals (Saskatoon and area), Acadians
  (Dieppe, Petit-Rocher, and Caraquet), recent
  immigrants (Peel)
• Data Collection
• over 19 months at ISR and Jolicoeur
• 55 response rate

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Questionnaire

• 75-80 questions, depending on answers to previous
  questions
• took, on average, 23 minutes to complete
• National 22, Aboriginal 28, Peel 26, Acadians 23
• mostly closed-ended (forced choice) questions
• 11 open-ended questions
• more qualitative, more respondent-centred, no a
  priori list of answers
• taped and transcribed
• 91 of all respondents gave permission to tape
  their answers to the open-ended questions

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Questionnaire Sections

• 1 general interest in the past
• 2 activities related to the past (engagement)
• 3 understanding the past (connectedness)
• 4 trustworthiness of sources on the past
• 5 importance of various pasts
• 6 sense of the past
• 7 biographical data
• 8 questions unique to supplemental samples

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New Brunswick
and Quebec Samples

• National Sample
• Quebec Provincial Sample, n 643
• New Brunswick Provincial Sample, n 104
• RDD samples next birthday selection
• sample distributed across the province in the
  same way as the population
• considerable confidence can generalize to the
  population
• Acadian Survey
• 100 people
• Dieppe, Petit-Rocher, and Caraquet
• targeted sample of three communities, random
  selection of respondent in household
• a snapshot of part of a larger community

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Acadian Survey

• Same as national survey with 3 additional
  questions
• 1) In the last five years did you participate in
  any activities that celebrated or commemorated
  Acadian heritage and history?
• 2) Which activities involving Acadian heritage or
  history did you participate in?
• 3) Could you please tell us what you might have
  learned about your Acadian background through
  these activities?

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Engagement 1
figures, this and remaining slides, national
sample (3,119 observations), weighted data
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Engagement 2

• almost all Canadians engage in activities where
  they encounter the past
• 99 engage in at least one activity
• 56 engage in more than five activities
• average number of activities 6 (out of 13)
• 44 engage in the three most common
  family-related activities (photos and heirlooms
  and scrapbooks)
• 25 have read a book about the past and visited a
  museum and visited a historic site
• very high participation rates for family
  activities
• lower participation rates for public history
  activities

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Engagement Education 1
significant in regression model
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Engagement Education 2
significant in regression model
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Interest in Various Pasts/Histories
The not interested percent includes not very
interested, not at all interested and
those who did not answer the question
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Importance of Various Pasts
The not important percent includes not
very important, not at all important and
those who did not answer the question very
important only for those who identified a
region 47
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Most Important Past
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Family Might have been
Part of a Larger History
. . . mostly because the family have been in
Canada for so many generations and I think it's
important that we . . . that those of us that
are alive today, are able to understand where we
came from and what part we might have played in
history - whether it was the fur trade or the Red
River settlement and rebellions, and stuff like
that. male, senior, BA, living in the Gulf
Islands of BC (id 1407922)
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Family Caught up in
a Larger History

• That was 50 years ago, we came as refugees to
  Canada from Hungary where we escaped from the
  Revolution . . . 200,000 Hungarians escaped at
  that time and I had a five and a seven year old
  child . . . it was a very, very dramatic escape .
  . . We just celebrated the 50th anniversary . .
  . of the uprising of the revolution . . . A book
  was published and our family story is . . . in
  that book. This is most important event in my
  life . . . and it changed the whole future of the
  family . . . I mean, we never would come to
  Canada or leave the country if there was no
  revolution, the Russian repression. So I saw
  dramatic change in our lives . . . this is the
  most important . . . it changed my whole life.
• woman, senior, MA, professor of music living
  in Hamilton (id 1403392)

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Family and Feeling
Connected to the Past
My mother-in-law died, we were looking through
photographs to gather up some pictures to have at
the wake my uncle did a family tree, and he
wrote stories of the community and . . . stories
about family members who moved away . . . We have
an old heritage house . . . that I've inherited .
. It is full of lots of antiques and . . . old
family things . . . it's a sense of history that
you're passing on to your family and . . . I
think it's important to know . . . where you came
from, . . . the house is 160 years old and . . .
it was built by my ancestors and of course, many,
many generations have lived in that house, and
it makes you feel, you know, connected, going
through all the . . . old pictures and all the
old clippings and old scrapbooks and things that
were there. woman, mid-fifties, BA, retail
manager, small town in PEI (id 1400457)
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Three Findings

• most Canadians engage the past in many different
  ways
• family history predominates
• making, preserving, interpreting and consuming
  family history
• more participation in passive rather than active
  activities
• education is a powerful predictor of engagement
• to a lesser extent, so is gender
• the past of most interest, the past of most
  importance, and those activities related to the
  past that Canadians are most likely to be engaged
  in, are activities related to the past of the
  individual and their family

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Regions Identified
by Respondents 1

• Is there a particular region of Canada you
  identify with or feel a part of?
• Yes 78
• limited provincial variation but higher in PQ
  (87) and lower in Ontario (70)
• What is that region?
• province of residence 44 (of those who
  identified with a region, or 34 all respondents)
• province, other than province of residence 6
• city of residence 4
• city, other than city of residence 7
• these 4 regions total 61 of the responses

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Regions Identified by Respondents 2
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Current Province of Residence
Same as Province of Birth (stayers)
figures, national sample, excludes not born
in Canada, 2,538 observations, weighted data
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Stayers and Leavers and
Demographics

• leavers have higher levels of education
• most of the difference is accounted for by more
  university degree holders in the leavers group
• leavers have higher incomes
• more leavers in the 120,000 or more group
• no difference between movers and stayers with
  respect to gender, having children or coming from
  a rural or urban area
• limited difference with respect to age
• over representation of movers in the 51 to 64 age
  range

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Stayers and Leavers and
Atlantic Canada Regions

• in Atlantic Canada 80 said they identified with
  or felt part of a region, in the rest of the
  country the comparable figure is 78
• 49 of Atlantic Canadian leavers said they
  identified with either Atlantic Canada, the
  Maritimes or Down East
• 32 of Atlantic Canadian stayers said they
  identified with these regions
• 25 of Atlantic Canadian leavers identified with
  their province
• 50 of Atlantic Canadian stayers identified with
  their province

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Past of Province Canada
Rated Very Important for Stayers
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Past of Province Canada
Rated Very Important for Leavers
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Very Interested in Three Pasts
by Stayers and Leavers
difference is statistically significant
(regression)
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Pasts rated Very Important
by Stayers and Movers
difference is statistically significant
(regression)
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Tentative Findings Region 1

• few Canadians (in percentage terms) identify with
  a traditional Canadian region
• the exception (as Létourneau will argue) is
  Quebec
• those who identify regions, identify many
• most regions are geographically small
• typically most regions are not political or
  administrative units
• regions are real but they are also imagined,
  regions of the mind, regions where place and
  community overlap
• people who move within the country do have higher
  education and incomes than stayers, but are no
  more likely to come from rural areas, to have
  kids or to vary (much) by age

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Tentative Findings Region 2

• even after controlling for education and
  income, leavers are more likely to say
• they are interested in the past of Canada,
• that the past of Canada is very important to them
• leavers are less likely to say the past of the
  province of birth was important to them
• Atlantic Canadians who leave their province of
  birth are more likely to identify with the east
  as a region than those who continue to reside in
  their province of birth
• when it comes to interest in and importance of
  the past, identity for those who leave is not the
  same as for those who stay

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Acknowledgements
From the Pasts Team Margaret Conrad Jocelyn
Létourneau From ISR John Pollard Mirka
Ondrack Hugh McCague