More Canadians financially optimistic amid COVID-19, poll finds

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Despite lost jobs, stock market swings, and unprecedented government spending, it appears more of us are feeling financially optimistic about the year ahead.

The last few months have been the most volatile in memory for most of us, yet a new study from the Angus Reid Institute has found, for many of us, our outlook about our individual longterm financial well-being hasn’t taken a hit.

The outlook is actually sunnier than it was six months ago for about a quarter of us. Twenty-four-per-cent of respondents say they’re better off now than they were last year — a rising figure.

However, the data suggests about one-third of Canadians are worse off  than they were in 2019.

“Significantly, optimism, too, has risen,” the findings add. “The number who say they will be better off next year at this time has risen to 30 per cent, from 15 per cent at the end of 2018, and 21 per cent at the end of 2019.”

When it comes to why people are feeling negatively about their financial outlook, the Angus Reid Institute has found some of the pessimism among those feeling it is “correlated with their lack of confidence in the Trudeau government’s ability to prevent a deepening economic crisis in the coming weeks and months.”

More than half of respondents — 58 per cent — say they’re not confident in the prime minister’s ability to minimize the economic impact of COVID-19, but that number rises to 71 per cent when it comes to those who feel their finances will suffer over the course of the next year

Meanwhile, as the coronavirus pandemic continues, the research has also found just more than half of Canadians — 51 per cent — are more worried about the risk of more people contracting COVID-19, while the other half say “their primary concern is the risk of further economic harm.”

Healthcare, the economy, and the country’s COVID-19 response are among the issues that are top of mind for Canadians right now.

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