Canuckology: The British Columbian

Earlier in the week, I pledged to take a look at the first several chapters of Canuckology, which deal with the sensibilities and priorities of Canadians by region. Let’s start our account just as authors Darrell Bricker and John Wright start theirs: with British Columbia.

British Columbia is currently a Liberal province presided over by Premier Christy Clark. Although they’re often renowned for their progressive environmental attitude – or written off as a bunch of dirty hippies, depending on your point of view – British Columbians tend to score no better than the national average on a number of key environmental indicators.

One of the main factors that do distinguish British Columbians from their fellow Canadians is their attitude toward arts funding. Nine out of ten British Columbians, believe that their local arts scene is good for tourism. According to Bricker and Wright, “it’s the only region of Canada where there’s complete agreement with the idea that a vibrant cultural scene is great for the local economy… Spend public money on the arts, get money back from tourists, and enjoy a better economy overall: In the world of opinion polls, nine out of ten counts as resounding support for this concept.”

Perhaps it’s not surprising, in that case, that British Columbians read more books than anyone else in Canada. However, Bricker and Wright are careful to note that “the reading list probably did not include the Bible.” Indeed, Quebec is the only province whose residents read the Bible less.

And by the way, if you’re a British Columbian, then compared to your fellow Canadians, you are “most likely to have got your pet cat spayed our neutered, and most likely to have got it tattooed.”

Posted in Election 2011