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Cost of living, systemic racism, affordable housing top of mind for Black voters: survey

Other issues include immigration, availability of jobs, and financial hardships due to COVID-19
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A man wears a facemask as he takes part along with thousands of people in a Black Lives Matter protest in Toronto on Friday, June 19, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

High costs of living, affordable housing and systemic racism are key election issues for Black voters according to a new survey.

The survey, conducted by Kasi Insight, polled 387 Black Canadians to better understand what issues matter most to the Black community. While African, Afro-Caribbean and Black Canadian communities agreed on the top three issues, there are community-specific issues among the Black Canadian diaspora.

Those who identify as African were more likely to rank immigration, workplace discrimination and job availability in their top 10 issues, whereas those who identify as Afro-Carribean were more likely to be concerned with financial challenges to due COVID-19. Those who identify as Black Canadians were more concerned with inequality and racial profiling by police.

Only 46 per cent of Black voters are happy with the performance of Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government, however, 39 per cent intend to vote for the Liberals in the upcoming election. That’s far more than the NDP at 16 per cent, the Conservatives at 10 per cent and the Greens at 7 per cent.

The survey suggests that Black representation could translate into voter support. Although support for the Green Party is low among those polled, 52 per cent of respondents said that having Annamie Paul as leader could lead to more Black voters going Green.

The survey was conducted with 387 Canadian adults of Africa descent (Black) from August 24 to September 9, 2021. A random sample of panellist’s were invited to complete the survey from a set of partner panels based on the Cint platform. These partners are typically double option survey panels, blended to manage out potential skews in the data from a single source.

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