Statement of Methodology:
Environics Research designed and conducted the “Willingness to Fight Survey” on behalf of the Cascade Institute and its sponsors. Environics is a member of the Canadian Research Insights Council (CRIC) and readers can have confidence in the results of the poll because the survey was completed in compliance with CRIC standards.
The Willingness to Fight Survey (WFS) was conducted online between April 3 and April 23, 2025 among 2,155 participants. A non-probability sample design was used, based on blending sample respondents from two consumer opt-in panels hosted by the commercial providers Dynata and SAGO (Asking Canadians). These companies recruit to their panels from diverse sources using a variety of online attraction and retention strategies, including the provision of incentives, to ensure representativeness of the adult Canadian population.
An original, larger sample from these two panels (n=4,522) supported the annual Environics Canadian Survey of Social Values conducted between January and March, 2025. The current WFS survey was mostly a "return-to-sample" design based on inviting respondents to participate who had completed the original Social Values survey, in which extensive demographic and psychographic measures were assessed that then did not have to be remeasured in the WFS poll.
This main sample (n=1,913) was supplemented by a booster sample of youth aged 18-24 years (n=242) sourced from the Dynata panel; these youth respondents did not answer the extensive demographic and social values questions assessed in the Social Values survey, except for four questions used in weighting.
The WFS was deemed broadly representative of adult Canadians (aged 18+ years) in all their diversity: geographic, linguistic, socio-economic, demographic and psychographic. However, further refinements to achieve even closer representativeness were made via sample weighting. The main sample was closely weighed to Canadian 2021 census targets and projections for gender, age, region, immigration status, education, household income and religious affiliation, and to Elections Canada results for votes cast by political party in the 2021 Federal election. The booster sample was also weighted to the same Census targets for gender, age, region and immigration status. The range of weights was capped at 3.0, with a median weight of .62 and a standard deviation of .84 (see table of unweighted and weighted sample sizes below).
The survey questionnaire is provided below. For further information about the survey content and methodology, contact David Jamieson, PhD, Chief Scientist, Environics Research (david.jamieson@environics.ca).
Weighting Table:
| Demographic and Geographic Variables | Unweighted Sample Size | Weighted Sample Size |
| Weighting Variables for Total Sample (Main Sample Plus Youth Booster Sample = 2,155) | ||
| Gender | ||
| Male | 1177 | 1066 |
| Female | 978 | 1089 |
| Total | 2155 | 2155 |
| Age | ||
| 18 -24 years | 311 | 232 |
| 25 - 34 years | 344 | 373 |
| 35 - 44 years | 343 | 364 |
| 45 - 54 years | 325 | 330 |
| 55 - 64 years | 357 | 361 |
| 65+ years | 475 | 496 |
| Total | 2155 | 2155 |
| Region | ||
| Atlantic (NS, NB, PE, NL) | 142 | 142 |
| Quebec (QC) | 393 | 483 |
| Ontario (ON) | 855 | 822 |
| West (MB, SK, AB, BC) | 765 | 709 |
| Total | 2155 | 2155 |
| Immigration Status | ||
| Born in Canada | 1653 | 1656 |
| Born outside Canada | 502 | 499 |
| Total | 2155 | 2155 |
| Weighting Variables for Main Sample Only (n=1,913, less missing values) | ||
| Education | ||
| High School or Less | 619 | 783 |
| College/Vocational/CEGEP | 408 | 593 |
| University+ | 886 | 626 |
| Total | 1913 | 2003 |
| Household Income | ||
| < $20K | 95 | 149 |
| $20K to $39K | 220 | 327 |
| $40K to $59K | 273 | 350 |
| $60K to $79K | 293 | 285 |
| $80K to $99K | 299 | 229 |
| $100K+ | 733 | 662 |
| Total | 1913 | 2003 |
| Religious Affiliation | ||
| Conservative Protestant | 155 | 161 |
| Mainline Protestant | 290 | 293 |
| Catholic | 568 | 615 |
| Other - NonChristian | 173 | 194 |
| No Religion | 718 | 723 |
| Total | 1904 | 1986 |
| Party Vote in 2021 Federal Election | ||
| Liberal | 678 | 475 |
| Conservative | 503 | 451 |
| NDP | 271 | 246 |
| Bloc Quebecois | 91 | 106 |
| Green | 60 | 32 |
| People's Party | 18 | 48 |
| Independent candidate | 37 | 12 |
| Did not vote | 209 | 574 |
| Total | 1867 | 1945 |
Willingness to Fight Questionnaire, for Canada SV v8
[If part of the Booster Youth sample, must collect four demos first]
[Ask demos according to Canada SV Core methods/questions for the purposes of eligibility screening and later weighting: gender, date of birth, birth status (born in Canada/immigrant), province of current residence]
[Gender: SV core content]
D1b. What is your gender?
Male, Female, Other (please specify): [OPEN BOX]
[DOB to determine age: SV core content]
i57. What is your date of birth?
Month, Day, Year
[Immigration status: SV core content]
D3. Which of the following best describes your status?
| 1. Born here, Canadian Citizen |
| 2. Born elsewhere, Canadian temporary resident |
| 3. Born elsewhere, Canadian permanent resident/immigrant (but without citizenship) |
| 4. Born elsewhere, Canadian citizen |
[Province: SV core content]
Q13_Canada. Please indicate what province you live in:
Provinces and Territories
[Eligibility for youth booster: age 18-24 only]
[Willingness to Fight Preamble (all respondents:]
We’d like to ask you some brief questions about Canada and international affairs.
[new page]
Q1aWTF. What actions would you take, if any, to fight to defend Canada against a military attack and invasion/occupation of this country by a hostile foreign power? Select all that apply.
[Multiple select radio buttons; pick all that apply; do NOT randomize]
1 - Talk to relatives, friends and neighbors to motivate our resistance and defence
2 - Give money, sign petitions in support of our defence
3 - Attend rallies and protests in support of our defence
4 - Join others to help organize and plan our defence
5 – Sever any personal connections you have to the attacking foreign power (e.g., sell off any financial interests, break off personal relationships)
6 - Volunteer to join and train with a civil defence organization (e.g., as a first responder, providing medical, logistical or support service; defending critical infrastructure)
7 - Volunteer to join the military
8 – Report for duty after being drafted into military service
9 – Other (please specify):
21 – I would not take any such actions [EXCLUSIVE]
[If Q1aWTF, option = any except 21]:
Q2aWTF. What are the primary reasons why you would fight to defend Canada in the ways you selected?
[Continue to Q4aWTF]
[If Q1aWTF, option = 21]:
Q2bWTF. What are the primary reasons why you would not fight to defend Canada in any of these ways?
[Continue to Q4aWTF]
Q4aWTF. Suppose Canada were defeated and occupied by another country after a military attack. Would you …
[Randomize 1&2]
1 – stay in the country
2 – leave the country
3- I don’t know
[Ask if option 1 in Q4aWTF]
Q4bWTF. Would you then
[Randomize 1&2]
1 – resist the invader’s occupation
2 – accept and adapt to the invader’s occupation, offering no resistance
3- I don’t know
[Ask if option 2 in Q4aWTF]
Q4cWTF. Would you then
[Randomize 1&2]
1 - contribute to resistance efforts from afar against the invader’s occupation
2 - stay entirely out of further events in Canada
3- I don’t know
[If option 2 at Q4bWTF, or option 2 at Q4cWTF, continue at Q7WTF]
Q5WTF. If Canada were defeated and occupied by another country, which actions would you be willing to take to fight to defend Canada at that point?
[Multiple select radio buttons; pick all that apply; do NOT randomize]
1 - Engage in nonviolent resistance (protests, economic disruption, disobedience)
2 - Engage in cyber-warfare and psychological counterattacks (hacking, digital sabotage, information warfare)
3 – Engage in violent resistance (join the military as it fights on or join an armed underground militia)
4 – Other (please specify):
5 – I would not take any such actions [EXCLUSIVE]
Q6WTF. Would you be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for Canada and die defending this country against a foreign military attack or occupation?
- Yes, absolutely
- No, I would not be willing to die
- Maybe, depending on the situation
- I don’t know
[If option 3 ask]:
Q6bWTF. Please explain why you chose “Maybe, depending on the situation”. What does your willingness depend on?
Q7WTF. In your view, within the next 5 years how likely is it that Canada will be attacked militarily by…:
[Randomize:]
- Russia
- China
- United States
[5-pt scale for each: 1-No likelihood at all, 2-Somewhat likely, 3-Moderately likely, 4-Highly likely, 5-It’s a certainty that this will happen, 6-Don’t know]
Q8WTF. Do you have friends or relatives living in ….?
[Randomize:]
- Russia
- China
- United States
[Yes vs. no for each]
Q9WTF. How much do you agree or disagree with this statement? “Being a Canadian is very important to me.”
- Totally agree
- Agree somewhat
- Disagree somewhat
- Totally disagree
Q10WTF. Would you say you are very, somewhat, not very, or not at all proud to be Canadian?
- Very
- Somewhat
- Not very
- Not at all
- I am not a Canadian / do not consider myself a Canadian
Q1bWTF. What actions would you take, if any, to fight to defend Canada against an economic attack on this country by a hostile foreign power, one designed to defeat Canada by economic means (e.g., by cancelling trade agreements, imposing tariffs, cutting off resources)? Select all that apply.
[Multiple select radio buttons; pick all that apply; do NOT randomize]
- Talk to relatives, friends and neighbors to motivate our resistance and defence
- Give money, sign petitions in support of our defence
- Attend rallies and protests in support of our defence
- Join other to help organize and plan our defence
- Sell off any financial interests and holdings you have in the attacking country
- Boycott the products of the attacker and buy Canadian
- Cancel travel plans to the attacking country
- Break off personal relationships with friends living in the attacking country
- Volunteer to join and train with a civil defence organization (e.g., as a first responder, providing medical, logistical or support service; defending critical infrastructure)
- Volunteer to join the military
- Other (please specify):
- I would not take any such actions [EXCLUSIVE]
Thank you for answering our questions today.
