Majority of Canadians support or somewhat support boycott of Beijing Olympics: Nanos survey

TORONTO —
The next edition of the Olympic Games are only half a year away, and more than half of Canadians say they support or somewhat support a Canadian boycott of the event, according to a new survey from Nanos Research for CTV News.

The idea of boycotting the Beijing Games has been floated for years. The Conservatives are on the record as calling for a Canadian boycott as part of a “wider plan” among Western allies, while human rights groups have urged the International Olympic Committee to move the event out of China.

More recently, various groups representing Uyghurs, Tibetans, residents of Hong Kong and others have called for a global boycott of the 2022 Winter Games.

Canadian Olympic Committee CEO and secretary-general David Shoemaker told CTVNews.ca earlier this year that he considers a boycott to be the wrong approach, saying that “sport has a unique power to bring the world together, to create dialogue and build understanding.”

Nanos’ findings suggest that the majority of Canadians disagree with that position – even without factoring China’s human rights record into the equation.

45 PER CENT SUPPORT BOYCOTT, 19 PER CENT SOMEWHAT SUPPORT

Asked if Canada should boycott next year’s Games “because of tensions between the two countries involving China holding two Canadians in jail and Canada holding a Huawei executive as part of a possible U.S. extradition,” 45 per cent of respondents indicated that they would support such a move.

Another 19 per cent said that they would somewhat support a boycott, while 14 per cent said they would somewhat oppose one and 15 per cent said they would oppose a boycott. Eight per cent of respondents said they were unsure.

The Huawei executive in question is Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested by RCMP agents in 2018 on U.S. fraud allegations related to alleged violations of American sanctions on Iran. She is currently living in Vancouver on bail, and an extradition hearing could begin as soon as this week.

Canadians Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were arrested in China days later in what is widely seen as retribution for Meng’s arrest, although China has denied this.

Support for a boycott varied significantly across the country. The highest level of pro-boycott sentiment was found in Ontario, where 70.3 per cent of respondents said they would support or somewhat support such a move. That figure stood at 66.5 per cent in British Columbia, 66.2 per cent in the Prairies, 60 per cent in Atlantic Canada and 50.9 per cent in Quebec.

China last hosted the Olympics in 2008, when the Summer Games were held in Beijing.

The most recent major Olympic boycotts occurred four decades ago. A U.S.-led coalition that included Canada skipped the Moscow Games in 1980, and the Soviet bloc retaliated with its own boycott of the Los Angeles Games in 1984.

METHODOLOGY

Nanos Research conducted an RDD dual frame (land- and cell-lines) hybrid telephone and online random survey of 1,002 Canadians, 18 years of age or older, between July 30 and Aug. 2, 2021 as part of an omnibus survey.

Participants were randomly recruited by telephone using live agents and administered a survey online.

The results were statistically checked and weighted by age and gender using the latest Census information, and the sample is geographically stratified to be representative of Canada.

Individuals were randomly called using random digit dialing with a maximum of five callbacks.

The margin of error for this survey is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

This study was commissioned by CTV News and the research was conducted by Nanos Research.