On Eve of TPP Signing Ceremony, New Poll Shows Canadians Concerned Over TPP's Potential Impacts

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Feb. 3, 2016) - A new national opinion poll by Leger shows that many Canadians are unaware or unfamiliar with the Trans-Pacific partnership (TPP), that when they learn about specific outcomes of the deal they are more likely to oppose it, and that a majority think it is unacceptable for the government to sign before completing public consultations.

Highlights of the poll results:

• Among those who are aware of the TPP (60%), more than half are not very/not at all familiar with the deal (53%).
• A majority of Canadians expressed that a series of possible outcomes of the TPP would make them more likely to oppose the deal:
  • Giving corporations and foreign investors the right to sue Canadian governments in tribunals outside Canada's legal system if the government makes public interest decisions that could impact foreign investor profits (72% more likely to oppose),
  • Increasing healthcare costs and limiting people's access to medicines in poor countries by extending patent protections to pharmaceutical companies (78% more likely to oppose)
  • Lowering Canadian food safety standards (78% more likely to oppose),
  • Changing Canada's intellectual property laws which could hurt Canadian business in research and innovation (68% more likely to oppose)
• A majority of Canadians think it is unacceptable for the government to sign the TPP before completing public consultations and before the agreement is debated in parliament (68%)
• Only 24% of Canadians who voted for the Liberal party in the 2015 election think it is acceptable for the government to sign prior to the completion of public consultations and before debate in Parliament.
• 70% of Canadians feel it would be unacceptable for the government to ratify the agreement if a majority of public consultations were opposed to the deal

The poll was commissioned by Leadnow.ca. In the last two weeks over 18,000 people have already joined a Leadnow.ca campaign calling on the government to reject the TPP.

"The TPP is a dangerous, costly, and out-dated deal, and many Canadians aren't even aware of it", says Brittany Smith, trade campaigner at Leadnow.ca. "But as these results suggest, the more people learn about the TPP, the more they oppose it. Canadians want our new government to follow through on its promises. They aren't happy with its decision to sign the TPP without the promised consultation, and will be very unhappy if they move to ratify it without the public's consent".

Leadnow.ca welcomes the government's plan to conduct a comprehensive study on the TPP and its impacts. Leadnow.ca is also calling on the government to:

• Release the findings from the public consultations on TPP, and commit that it won't move to ratify the deal if a majority oppose it in public consultations
• Hold more open public consultations on the TPP, giving adequate notice as well as information on its projected impacts so the public can meaningfully participate

You can download the report here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/leadnow/TPP_Research+Results_February+1st+2016_Final.pdf

Leadnow.ca is an independent advocacy organization founded in 2010. The Leadnow.ca community has chosen three areas of focus: a strong democracy, fair economy and clean environment for all generations. Its members have ranked stopping the TPP as one of its top priorities for 2016.

Backgrounder

This was a national, online survey of 1,500 Canadians conducted between January 27th to January 31st, 2016 using LegerWeb. A probability sample of the same size would yield a margin of error of +/- 2.5%, 19 times out of 20.