Proposal to probe only some cases “does not go far enough” for majority of respondents, who want to review every single expense incurred by MPs.

An overwhelming proportion of Canadians welcome the assessment of MP expenses initiated by Auditor-General Sheila Fraser, but a majority would like this process to be more thorough, a new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.

In the online survey of a representative national sample of 1,031 Canadian adults, 82 per cent of respondents say the audit is necessary, while only six per cent deem it unnecessary.

The Proposal

The Auditor-General has proposed to look only into some cases—through the analysis of a statistical sample of MP expense files—and make no mention of individual MPs who are found to have violated existing guidelines.

The announced course of action is not particularly well received by Canadians. Almost three-in-five respondents (57%) say the probe into MP expenses does not go far enough, while one-in-four (26%) think it is about right and eight per cent believe it goes too far.

What Canadians Prefer

More than half of Canadians (53%) would prefer to reveal every single expense made by each MP with his or her stipend in a year, while 29 per cent would be content with disclosing the total that each individual MP spent in a year, and 10 per cent think revealing an average of how much all MPs spent in a year would suffice.

It is important to note that the level of agreement on all three questions—the need for an audit into MP expenses, the impression that the Auditor-General’s probe does not go far enough and the wish to disclose every single expense made by each MP—is equally high in all Canadian provinces and among supporters of the five main federal parties.

Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)

CONTACT:

Jodi Shanoff, Senior Vice President, Public Affairs
+416 712 5498
jodi.shanoff@angus-reid.com

Methodology: From June 16 to June 17, 2010, Angus Reid Public Opinion conducted an online survey among 1,031 randomly selected Canadian adults who are Angus Reid Forum panelists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region Census data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of Canada. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.