Prepared for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada
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This public opinion research report presents the methodology for two online surveys conducted by Ekos Research Associates Inc. on behalf of Public Safety Canada. The research was conducted in two phases, the first with 2,118 Canadian adults and was collected between June 17 and 29, 2021. The second phase included 2,019 Canadian adults and was collected between March 7 and 18, 2022.
Cette publication est aussi disponible en français sous le titre : Évaluation de la campagne de sensibilisation du public aux armes à feu : Sommaire méthodologique de l'OÉCP.
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Related publications registration number: POR-010-21
© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, as represented by the Minister of Public Works and Government Services, 2022.
Ekos Research Associates Inc. is pleased to submit this report to Public Safety Canada detailing the methodology of two online surveys assessing the ad recall from the Firearms Public Awareness Campaign. The goal of this campaign was to raise awareness about the rise of gun violence in Canada and the actions being taken by the Government of Canada to address it.
The Minister of Public Safety's mandate letter outlined the Government's commitment to take action to further reduce firearms-related violence, including by strengthening gun control laws, targeting gang violence and illegal firearms trafficking, and banning assault-style firearms. On May 1, 2020, the Government of Canada announced the prohibition of over 1,500 models of assault-style firearms and certain components of some newly prohibited firearms. These models represent nine categories of firearms and two types identified by characteristic.
Public Safety Canada has developed a national campaign to raise awareness and educate Canadians and firearms owners of the need to reduce violent crime by limiting illicit access to firearms. The campaign focused on raising awareness and understanding among Canadians 18+ (slight skew to men) to raise awareness and understanding of the actions being taken by the Government of Canada to address gun violence.
The research included two components:
The results of this research will allow Public Safety Canada to assess the recall of the ad campaign based on feedback from the survey data and analysis.
Two bilingual, national online surveys were conducted: one as a pre-campaign baseline, in advance of the campaign launch, and one at the end of the campaign to measure change in awareness, and to assess the impact of the campaign. The baseline survey included 2,118 Canadian adults, and was collected between June 17 and 29, 2021. The post campaign sample included 2,019 Canadians adults, and was collected between March 7 and 18, 2022. Each sample strived for a 60% representation among men as previous research conducted on behalf of Public Safety Canada showed that men are slightly more represented in the firearms owners audience and this demographic information should be taken into account due to the subject matter of the campaign. Each survey instrument included the Advertising Campaign Evaluation Tool (ACET) questions used by the Government of Canada in all of its advertising evaluation research, along with additional questions testing impact on perceptions targeted through the campaign. Each sample included randomly selected respondents from all provinces and territories.
Each survey sample relied on Ekos' Probit panel, which is assembled using a random digit dial process for sampling from a blended land-line cell-phone frame, and provides full coverage of Canadians with telephone access. The distribution of the recruitment process is meant to mirror the actual population in Canada (as defined by Statistics Canada). As such, our more than 120,000 member panel can be considered representative of the general public in Canada (meaning that the incidence of a given target population within our panel very closely resembles the public at large) and margins of error can be applied.
Appendix A provides the details of the methodology for these pre- and post-campaign surveys. The pre- and post-campaign questionnaires can be found in Appendix B and C.
The opinions and observations expressed in this document do not reflect those of Public Safety Canada. This report was compiled by Ekos Research Associates Inc. based on research conducted specifically for this project.
I hereby certify as Senior Officer of Ekos Research Associates Inc. that the deliverables fully comply with the Government of Canada political neutrality requirements outlined in the on Communications and Federal Identity and the Directive on the Management of Communications. Specifically, the deliverables do not include information on electoral voting intentions, political party preferences, standings with the electorate, or ratings of the performance of a political party or its leaders.
Signed by: Susan Galley (Vice President)