To view detailed poll analysis complete with colour charts, please click here

No Need for Ageism
All our members recall a series of television commercials using two caricatures of elderly men, and most associate them with TD Canada Trust. A significant minority say they found the ads offensive and that they make them less likely to do business with TD. However, half of our readers found the ads to be amusing and most said it would not affect their decision to do business with a particular financial institution.

Nonetheless, everyone would gain if a bank or financial institution ran ads depicting seniors as intelligent, active and aware – there is a six fold increase in the number of people who would be more likely to do business with the sponsor of positive ads – even among those who had a benign response to the ads in question and certainly among those who had a negative response. Even more instructive, better ads would reduce the proportion unlikely to do business with that bank from 16% to almost nil.

Close to one third of members have personally experienced ageism, and this proportion has nearly doubled since last year.

Packaging battles

The vast majority of members experience difficulty with consumer packaging at least “sometimes”, and four-in-ten experience these problems “often” or “frequently”. The biggest offender is hardware blister packaging.

Thumbs up for Pension Reform

The vast majority of members agree with the federal and Ontario provincial governments’ recent initiatives on pensions, half believe CPP should be increased, but not doubled and the slim majority believe the principal responsibility for pensions lies with the public sector, not the private sector.
One half of members think these initiatives will solve at least some of Canada’s pension problems, but very few believe Canada’s pension crisis has been solved. Nevertheless, twice as many say they are more likely to vote for the government as a result as say they will vote against it.
The Conservatives are favoured over the Liberals by an ever-increasing margin, and enthusiasm for a Liberal/NDP coalition remains low.

Keywords: pension reform, ageism