Majority of Canadians oppose equity hiring — more than in the U.S., new poll finds

While only 28 per cent of Canadians support equity hiring, 36 per cent of Americans support affirmative action

Author of the article:

Tyler Dawson

Published Dec 03, 2024  •  Last updated Dec 03, 2024  •  4 minute read

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A majority of Canadians say that employers should not take cultural or ethnic backgrounds into consideration when hiring, according to new polling.

Fifty-seven per cent of Canadians disagree with the notion that equity should be a part of hiring, according to the poll done by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies.

“The survey results point to some pushback on the issue of minority hiring in Canada and the United States,” said Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies, in an email.

In fact, equity hiring is less popular in Canada than the United States. While only 28 per cent of Canadians support equity hiring, 36 per cent of Americans support affirmative action. Meanwhile, less than half (46 per cent) of Americans oppose it.

The polling comes as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), has come under increased scrutiny in the business and political world. Last month, Walmart scrapped its diversity program, making it the largest corporation to do so. (Others, such as Harley Davidson and John Deere, have also done so.) In the political realm, some political parties, including Alberta’s governing United Conservatives, have policies that explicitly endorse the elimination of DEI hiring within the public service and Crown corporations.

The Canadian federal government has specific equity targets in its hiring, a practice that has existed since the 1980s. The percentage of visible minorities hired by the federal government grew from just shy of 18 per cent to just shy of 27 per cent between 2016 and 2024. Jedwab said he decided to focus on employment equity because it’s “one of the key core elements” of what’s being talked about in the DEI conversation.

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“It is important that our workforce reflect to the best extent it can our demographic reality,” said Jedwab in an interview.

Diversity hiring is the most unpopular among Canadians between the ages of 45 and 54, at 62 per cent, although it’s similarly unpopular across all age groups. Even among 18 to 24 year olds, 50 per cent oppose diversity hiring.

Men and women, at 57 per cent, equally oppose such policies. Typically, women hold more progressive views on social issues than do men. Some of the pushback, Jedwab said, may be coming from those who believe there is systemic racism in Canada but that diversity hiring initiatives aren’t doing enough to rectify inequalities and that the ultimate targets or objectives might be unclear.

“The risk is, if the objective is, it can’t be met, people begin to ask what’s the point in the first place? And that’s problematic, because the program is important,” Jedwab said.

There are, however, some regional differences. In Quebec, where the provincial government has attempted to stamp out religious dress and jewelry in some workplaces, the objection to equity hiring is most strongly held: Sixty-three per cent of Quebecers disagree with it. Quebec is followed by Alberta, where 58 per cent say background shouldn’t be a consideration in hiring, and British Columbia, where 57 per cent hold that view. Fifty-five per cent of Ontarians polled agree, as do 53 per cent of those in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Only in Atlantic Canada, where 50 per cent oppose diversity hiring, is there not an outright majority.

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However, there are significant percentages of Canadians who say they don’t know the answer to the question. Nationally, 15 per cent of Canadians say they don’t know, a view that’s most likely in Ontario, where 19 per cent said they didn’t know the answer.

Immigrants are somewhat more likely than non-immigrants to support diversity hiring. Thirty-four per cent say it’s important to take background into consideration, compared to 26 per cent of non-immigrants. That said, a solid 50 per cent of immigrants still say that it should not be taken into consideration.

“There’s a hierarchy, a hierarchy of vulnerability, and some groups may feel that they don’t qualify,” said Jedwab. “There’s some confusion about who does and who doesn’t qualify in that hierarchy, which may also result in some support being diminished, because we’re also seeing that the support amongst minority groups themselves is not as high as we would have assumed.”

The polling did not specifically ask people why they object to equity hiring.

Freelance workers and the self employed, at 75 per cent, are most likely to oppose equity hiring, followed by full-time workers, at 58 per cent. Fifty-one per cent of part-time workers oppose equity hiring.

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The polling sought responses from 1,539 people in Canada between Nov. 22 and Nov. 24 via an online panel. A margin of error cannot be associated with a non-probability sample in a panel survey for comparison purposes. However, a probability sample of 1,539 respondents would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20. In the United States, Leger polled 1,009 people over the same time period, and that online survey has a probabilistic margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 per cent, 19 times out of 20.