On the Rebound? Perceptions of Discrimination in Alberta Society

Angelia Wagner | University of Alberta | angelia@ualberta.ca

July 21, 2021

Introduction

This Research Brief draws upon three Viewpoint Alberta surveys (2019-21) to understand how Albertans perceive inequality in the province and how these attitudes have changed over time. In each survey, we asked Albertans for their views about the level of inequality faced by a range of social groups including Indigenous peoples, Black people, transgender people, gays and lesbians, Muslims, immigrants, women, Christians, white people, and men. We found that, for the most part, public perceptions of discrimination in Alberta society in Spring 2021 retreated back to 2019 levels after a jump in 2020, though partisanship remained an important cleavage among respondents. NDP supporters continued to be much more likely than UCP supporters to note that various social groups experience a lot or a great deal of discrimination.

Context

The Black Lives Matter movement and other anti-racist activism remained strong in the first half of 2021, with activists continuing to draw public attention to discrimination throughout North America. The March 2021 Viewpoint Alberta Survey, however, was fielded before several pivotal movements in race relations in Alberta, Canada, and the United States. These events include the summer discovery of more than 1,000 unmarked graves of Indigenous children at former government-sponsored and church-run residential schools and several church burnings believed to be a response to these discoveries. Muslim women throughout Alberta have been violently attacked this summer, while in June, several members of a Muslim family were run down and killed in Ontario. Anti-Asian racism has increased over the last year in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the first known case of the virus found in China. Finally, the survey was fielded just as the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin, who is white, was getting underway in the United States. He was later convicted in the death of African American George Floyd. The findings presented in this research brief do not reflect the potential influence of these events on public opinion in Alberta.

Perceptions of Racial Discrimination in Alberta

Even though the survey was fielded before the residential school discoveries and Chauvin trial, the impact of ongoing Indigenous activism and the Black Lives Matter movement on public perceptions of racial discrimination in Alberta remained strong in early 2021. As Figure 1 shows, half (50.1%) of respondents to the March 2021 survey agreed that Indigenous people face a lot or a great deal of discrimination in the province, statistically equivalent to August 2020 (50.8%) but still 12 percentage points higher than in November 2019 (38.9%). In all three surveys, respondents were much more likely to note discrimination against Indigenous people than against any other social group. Discrimination was also perceived to be high against Black people, Muslims, immigrants, transgender people, and gays and lesbians, though exact rankings varied across the surveys. In 2021, a larger proportion of Albertans agreed that Indigenous people (50.1%) experienced a lot or a great deal of discrimination, followed by Muslims (41.5%), immigrants (39.4%), transgender people (38.4%), gays and lesbians (31.2%) and Black people (30.5%). While Indigenous people also topped the survey rankings, transgender people, Muslims, and immigrants often switched places in survey rankings between 2019 and 2021. The top six was rounded out by gays and lesbians and Black people, in that order.

In contrast to Indigenous activism, Figure 1 suggests that the Black Lives Matter movement is having a waning influence on public attitudes toward racial discrimination against Black people in Alberta. Less than one-third of respondents (30.5%) believed that Black people face a lot or a great deal of discrimination in 2021, down five percentage points from 2020 (35.7%) but still seven percentage points higher than in 2019 (23.7%).

Public perception of anti-white racism, meanwhile, has returned to pre-Floyd levels: in 2021, 13.7% of respondents claimed that white people experience a lot or a great deal of discrimination in society while 13.2% said so in 2019, compared to a low of 12.4% in 2020.

The degree to which respondents believe racism exists in Alberta today partly depends upon their partisanship. To measure partisanship, we asked respondents which provincial political party they usually identify with: New Democratic Party, United Conservative Party, Alberta Party, Liberal Party, Green Party, and Wildrose Independence Party, or none of the above. Figure 2 depicts how NDP, UCP, and other partisans as well as non-partisans perceived anti-Indigenous racism between 2019 and 2021. While overall perceptions of racism were inching back to 2019 levels, NDP supporters continued to be far more likely than supporters of other partisan groups and non-partisans to believe Indigenous people face discrimination. In 2021, two-thirds (69%) of NDP partisans agreed that Indigenous people face a lot or a great deal of discrimination, down four percentage points from 2020 (73%) but seven percentage points higher than in 2019 (61.8%). UCP supporters showed the biggest drop in perceptions of anti-Indigenous discrimination over the last year, going from 39.9% in 2020 to 32% in 2021, but still higher than 25.4% in 2019. In contrast, supporters of other political parties demonstrated an increasing perception of anti-Indigenous racism over time (49.4% in 2019, 54.7% in 2020, and 56.6% in 2021) as did non-partisans (33.4% in 2019, 46.8% in 2020, and 49.4% in 2021).

Figure 3 shows a similar pattern when it comes to Albertan views of anti-Black racism in the province. Regardless of party, partisan respondents appear to be returning to 2019 levels in terms of the degree to which they believe Black people experience a lot or a great deal of discrimination. Almost half (45.5%) of NDP supporters thought anti-Black racism remained strong in 2021, a figure that is 13 percentage points lower than in 2020 (58.1%) but almost six percentage points higher than in 2019 (39.4%). Just 15% of UCP supporters perceived a high degree of anti-Black racism in Alberta in 2021 compared to 20.6% in 2020 and 14.3% in 2019. The 2021 survey revealed a similar retreat among supporters of other provincial political parties. Non-partisans were the only group of respondents to increase their perception of anti-Black racism, rising to 32.1% in 2021 from 30.6% in 2020 and 20.7% in 2019. Still, NDP supporters were more likely than other partisan groups and non-partisans to agree that Black people face considerable racism in Alberta today.

Perceptions of Religious Discrimination in Alberta

In contrast to racial discrimination, Albertans showed little change in their perception of religious discrimination from 2020. Figure 4 shows that two in five respondents (41.5%) to the 2021 survey believed Muslims experience a lot or a great deal of discrimination, up from 41.2% in 2020 and 38.5% in 2019. Only 10.6% of respondents believed this was the case for Christians compared to 10.8% in 2020 but still lower than the 12.5% of respondents who said so in 2019.

The partisan pattern observed in perceptions of anti-Indigenous and anti-Black racism in Alberta repeats itself in public attitudes toward anti-Muslim discrimination. Figure 5 shows that, in 2021, NDP supporters (59.2%) were more likely than UCP supporters (24.1%), other partisans (51.2%), and non-partisans (40%) to note the existence of a lot or a great deal of Islamophobia. The same pattern was found in the 2019 and 2020 surveys. Interestingly, NDP partisans bucked the trend of decreasing perceptions of discrimination: a higher percentage agreed that strong Islamophobia existed in 2021 than did so in 2019 and 2020. UCP partisans went in the opposite direction, with fewer supporters believing Islamophobia was a major problem in 2021 than did in 2019 and 2020. Supporters of other political parties held steady in 2021 compared to 2020 and but still higher than in 2019, while non-partisans saw an increase in 2021 from 2020 and 2019. Both groups demonstrated a stronger jump between the 2019 and 2020 surveys.

While NDP partisans are more alert to Islamophobia, UCP partisans are more likely to believe Christians faced a lot or a great deal of religious discrimination. And this pattern held across the three surveys. In 2021, 14.3% of UCP supporters asserted that Christians face strong discrimination compared to just 5.7% of NDP supporters. Other partisans and non-partisans fell between these two groups. The UCP’s 2021 figure did not return to the 2019 figure, but it is moving in that direction. Meanwhile, the NDP’s 2021 figure is actually lower than the 2019 level.

Perceptions of Sexual Discrimination in Alberta

Figure 6 shows that public attitudes toward transphobia are almost back at 2019 levels. More than one-third (38.4%) of respondents said in 2021 that transgender people face a lot or a great deal of discrimination in society today, compared to 37.9% in 2019; the 2020 figure was 42.6%. Perceptions of homophobia followed the same pattern: 31.2% of respondents believed gays and lesbians faced strong discrimination in 2021 compared to 30.5% who said so in 2019 and 36.3% in 2020.

Partisanship remains an important cleavage when it comes to public perceptions of sexual discrimination. Figure 7 shows that, in 2021, NDP partisans (58.8%) were almost three times more likely than UCP partisans (20.2%) to believe transphobia was strong in Alberta society. This pattern held across all three surveys. What is notable, though, is that both partisan groups dipped below their 2019 figures, which were 60.6% for the NDP and 26.9% for the UCP. This result provides additional support for the conclusion that public attitudes toward discrimination were retreating in early 2021 after a year of highly visible anti-discrimination activism in Canada and the United States.

While Albertans continue to be less likely to perceive homophobia than transphobia as a major issue, Figure 8 shows that NDP partisans (46.5%) were three times more likely than UCP partisans (15.7%) to agree in 2021 that gays and lesbians experience strong discrimination. While the gap between these two groups varied across each survey, the general pattern remained consistent. Non-partisans and supporters of other parties fell between the NDP and UCP in their perceptions of homophobia, but their figures were also moving back to 2019 levels.

Perceptions of Gender Discrimination in Alberta

As with homophobia and transphobia, public perceptions of sexism also appear to be returning to 2019 levels—but only in relation to women. As Figure 9 shows, one in five Albertans (22.7%) believed in 2021 that women faced a lot or a great deal of discrimination compared to 21.9% in 2019 after a high of 26.2% in 2020. Public perception of sexism against men remained steady at 9.6% in 2021, an imperceptible rise from 9.5% in 2020 but still two percentage points lower than in 2019 (11.8%).

Partisanship mattered most when it came to perceptions of sexism against women. As Figure 10 shows, NDP supporters (34.7%) were three times more likely than UCP supporters (11.2%) to believe in early 2021 that women faced a lot or a great deal of discrimination in Alberta, a partisan gap that had actually widened since 2019 in large part because of decreasing perceptions of anti-female sexism among UCP supporters. This finding might be the byproduct of women leaving the UCP base over the same period. In 2020, twice as many NDP partisans (36.5%) than UCP partisans (17.9%) agreed that sexism was strong against women. The 2019 figures were 30.4% for the NDP and 14.3% for the UCP.

Partisan differences were far less stark when it came to perceptions of sexism against men, as revealed in Figure 11. In 2021, UCP supporters (10.4%) were more likely than NDP supporters (6.2%) to believe men faced a lot or a great deal of discrimination in Alberta, maintaining the four percentage-point spread that existed between the UCP (11.6%) and NDP (7.3%) in 2020 but less than the nine percentage-point difference between the UCP (14.5%) and NDP (5%) in 2019.

Summary

Public perceptions of inequality in Alberta are retreating to 2019 levels after a year of intense anti-racism activism across North American. The Black Lives Matter movement and ongoing Indigenous activism seemed to have an impact on 2020 attitudes toward general discrimination in society, but this influence appears to be waning as public attention refocuses on dealing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As always, partisanship proved to be an important cleavage among Albertans. NDP supporters more likely than other partisan groups and non-partisans to perceive a greater degree of discrimination in Alberta, though even this group is largely retreating to 2019 levels in most, but not all, cases. Because the latest survey was fielded in March 2021, the latest figures do not reflect the potential influence of recent residential school discoveries, church burnings, Islamophobic incidents, anti-Asian racism, or the guilty verdict in the Chauvin trial. What these findings do suggest is that public perceptions of discrimination fluctuate according to important events, but that underlying attitudes are likely consistent over time.

Methodology of the Viewpoint Alberta Surveys

The 2021 Viewpoint Alberta Survey was conducted between March 1 and 8, 2021. The survey was deployed online by the Leger. A copy of the survey questions can be found here: http://bit.ly/30VcYEY. Leger co-ordinates the survey with an online panel system that targets registered panelists that meet the demographic criteria for the survey. Survey data is based on 802 responses with a 17-minute average completion time.

The 2020 Viewpoint Alberta Survey was conducted between August 17 and 30, 2020. The survey was deployed online by the Social Sciences Research Laboratories (SSRL). A copy of the survey questions can be found here: https://bit.ly/35rtU9F. SSRL co-ordinates the survey with an online panel system that targets registered panelists that meet the demographic criteria for the survey. Survey data is based on 825 responses with a 17-minute average completion time.

The 2019 Viewpoint Alberta Survey was conducted between October 22 and November 21, 2019. The survey was deployed online by Qualtrics. A copy of the survey questions can be found here: https://bit.ly/2PvQV2C. Qualtrics coordinates the survey with an online panel system that targets registered panelists who meet the demographic criteria for the survey. Survey data are based on 820 total responses (number varies across questions) with a 17-minute average completion time.

The Viewpoint Alberta Survey was led by co-principal investigators Loleen Berdahl, Elaine Hyshka, and Jared Wesley. It was funded in part by an Alberta-Saskatchewan Research Collaboration Grant from the Kule Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Alberta and the College of Arts and Science at the University of Saskatchewan.