The document analyzes perspectives on poverty in Canada through a survey of over 1,000 Canadians. It identifies four main "schools of thought" or segments that Canadians fall into based on their views: 1) "Bootstrappers" believe people are poor due to laziness and poverty is avoidable through hard work. 2) "The Jaded" see poverty as trapping people but also believe the poor could escape it through effort. 3) "Personal Responsibility" sympathize with the poor but don't see assistance as a full solution and poverty as sometimes unavoidable. 4) "Sympathizers" strongly believe poverty is not a choice and the poor deserve help to escape their

1. Poverty in Canada 2011 Perceptions of poverty and the impoverished

2. Methodology 2 The study was conducted online with a sample of 1026 Canadians drawn from the Angus Reid Forum, a panel of 100,000+ Canadians who have agreed to participate in research This panel, which has won awards for its exemplary quality, is balanced to be representative of the Canadian population. The survey was conducted January 26 and 27, 2011 in English and French. The data were weighted by age, gender, region, language and past Federal vote, to ensure final representativeness. With a sample of this size, the data can be considered accurate approximately +/- 3.1%, nineteen times out of twenty.

3. Poverty and DignityEveryone supports the notion of dignity, but not everyone thinks poverty robs you of dignity 3 % agree

4. Escape from PovertyPeople are generally supportive of helping people escape poverty, but some don’t think they can much about it 4 % agree

5. Children in PovertyPeople generally agree that helping children living in poverty opens the door to future success 5 % agree

6. The Poor are the ProblemThere is a significant minority who think the poor could work their way out of poverty if they really wanted to 6 % agree

7. How Poor is Poor?People recognise minimum wage isn’t much to live on, but a significant minority think the poor have it “pretty good” 7 % agree

8. Monetary Definition of Poverty 8 Yearly income level that makes a family “poor” $21,643 Least amountfamily of fourcan live on in Canada $32,499 I’d like to know what yearly income level you think makes a family “poor”. If you are not sure, please give it your best estimate. I'd like to know what you think is the least amount of money a family of four can get by on in Canada in a year. If you are not sure, please give it your best estimate.

9. Uncovering the schools of thoughton poverty in Canada 9

10. Uncovering schools of thought on Poverty We see differences of opinion on many of these topics. But what we don’t see is how the opinions come together to form a mindset. So we used a technique called cluster analysis, which identifies groups of people with similar attitudes. This analysis uncovered four distinct mindsets ,or schools of thought, on Poverty among Canadians.

11. Compassion and personal responsibility are the main dimensions which divide these four schools of thought Poor could use help Sympathisers 31% The Jaded 17% Personal Responsibility PersonalResponsibility 32% Boot-Strappers21% Poor should DIY Compassion for poor Low High

12. Bootstrappers21% of Canadians Bootstrappers think people are poor because they are lazy, and that the poor still have it “pretty good”. A “good work ethic is all you need to escape poverty” they believe. And they are convinced that “if poor people really want to work, then can always find a job”. They also think that “if we gave poor people more assistance they would just take advantage of it”. They also disagree with the idea that “if we gave poor people more assistance they could escape poverty”.

13. The Jaded 17% of Canadians The Jaded have a kind of weary fatalistic view of the poor and the poverty they are in. They believe it robs you of dignity and that it is a trap some people can’t escape. But they also think a good work ethic is all you need to escape poverty and that “if poor people really want to work, they can always find a job”. They also agree that “poor people usually have lower moral values” . The Jaded don’t think that they themselves can do anything to help the poor. That said, they do believe something can be done about poverty and that assistance could help people escape poverty—if, it would seem, the impoverished change their ways.

14. Personal Responsibility 32% of Canadians People in the Personal Responsibility group are fairly sympathetic to those trapped in poverty. They don’t think the poor “have it pretty good”. Neither do they think a good work ethic is all you need to escape poverty. They believe “people in poverty deserve a helping hand” and are optimistic that if we gave poor people more assistance they could escape poverty. But they don’t agree that “poor people have hard lives because government benefits don’t go far enough”. They are not fully convinced that Poverty is a trap some Canadians just can’t escape.

15. Sympathisers31% of Canadians Sympathisers are passionate about poverty. They strongly disagree that people are poor because they are lazy. And they strongly agree the poor deserve a helping hand. They don’t believe that a good work ethic is all you need to escape poverty. And they don’t think the poor have lower moral values. They also feel very strongly that poverty is something we can and should do something about. They firmly believe in providing assistance, and don’t think that help would be exploited. They very strongly agree everyone deserves a sense of dignity.

16. Monetary Definition of PovertyBy Segment 16

17. Segment Demographics 17 Age Income Education Gender Male Female Bootstrappers The Jaded TheSympathetic PersonalResponsibility

18. Religious Service Attendance Vote Intentions Bootstrappers The Jaded TheSympathetic PersonalResponsibility Segment Demographics 18 Bootstrappers The Jaded TheSympathetic PersonalResponsibility Undecided and others not shown

19. Where do the segments live? 19

20. Where do the segments live? 20

21. Poverty in Canada 2011 Perceptions of poverty and the impoverished