Cost of Living Survey

Dear Asarial,

A couple of weeks ago, we asked Leadnow members to share their thoughts on the cost of living crisis. Since then, 9,481 of you have completed the survey.This time we also offered an extended set of questions for those who wished to share more, and over 6,000 of you opted to answer those as well.

We’re deeply grateful for everyone who took the time to participate. Thanks to you, we’re able to get a real sense of how this crisis is affecting people across the country — and that helps to ensure our campaigns can be targeted at the right issues to do the most good.

Here are some of the key results of the survey:

We heard that the cost of living crisis is hitting our members hard, with nearly half (47.8%) stating they are “very worried” and 34% “worried” about the crisis. When asked what areas of your life were most impacted by cost of living increases, “groceries” was by far the most common response (over 85%), followed by gas/transportation (55%), power (38%), and housing (35%). People also mentioned prescription costs and interest rates as concerns.

Perhaps most concerning, 75% of respondents indicated that they expected the crisis to get worse over the next 12 months; just 4.1% said they thought it would get better, and 12% think it will stay the same.

Leadnow’s analysis is that a big driver of the cost of living crisis is corporate profiteering, and it’s clear that our members share that view, with corporate greed ranked the biggest culprit by a huge majority of respondents (pandemic-driven supply issues, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, housing costs, and extreme weather events were also ranked as contributing factors). It’s no surprise then that challenging corporate greed through windfall taxes was the most popular response to the crisis, though it was followed closely by basic income — long a Leadnow priority.

For those who opted to answer the extended questions, we asked about perceptions of government response to the crisis. Nearly half of respondents thought the federal government was doing an ok job, and about 40% thought the feds were doing a bad job (just 4.4% thought the federal government was doing great). Provincially, there was much more dissatisfaction, with just shy of 80% of members alleging a bad job and 15% just ok (only 1% thought provincial governments were doing great). The respondents were predominantly from Ontario (51%) and BC (27%), and so these provincial results will largely reflect those governments.

Thank you to everyone who took part in the survey. Your responses help us understand how the crisis is impacting you, and where we can best make a difference. With this information in hand, we are looking to double down on our efforts for windfall taxes on the worst corporate offenders. And we’ll take a renewed look at efforts to deliver a basic income in 2023.

Onward together,
Tim and Dan, on behalf of Leadnow