Survey of Electors Following the40th General Election

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XVI. Technological Profile

A. Use of Technology

The rapid acceptance of new technologies and especially social media has meant that a large array of new communication tools have become increasingly available to reach certain groups, and especially youth, in new and more direct ways. Further, as noted in earlier sections of this report, key segments of the population are not (or no longer) embracing traditional media such as newspapers. In order to keep pace with these new developments, as a new initiative for Elections Canada, this survey reviews Canadians' use of new communications technologies and its possible impact on voting.

One of the key finding from this analysis is the wide variety of new technologies and social media, Facebook in particular, embraced by all segments of society. At the same time, on-line technologies are being used by some across all segments of society, and particularly youth, among other things to discuss politics. What is especially encouraging is that among youth, those reporting that they did not vote in 2008 are using on-line technologies to discuss politics. The challenge in these findings is to explore ways of using these technologies to engage youth, and the population overall, in the electoral process.

The technology that makes much of the new social media possible is the Internet, and four-in-five Canadians (81%) report having access to the Internet at home. Younger Canadians are more likely to have home access to the Internet than are older Canadians and this pattern is also common for much of the use of social media. Moreover, wealthier Canadians are more likely to have access to the Internet from home.

Internet access at home
	Total 2008	18‑34	35‑44	45‑54	55+
n =	2,500	691	442	548	820
	%	%	%	%	%
Yes	81	92	90	88	62
No	19	8	11	12	37
Unsure	<1	-	-	-	-
DK/NA/Ref	<1	-	-	-	1

When use of new technology is looked at across the population overall, and the sub-populations surveyed, then it is clear that there are significant variations by group. The Internet is especially strongly embraced by youth (95%). Across other technologies, it is clear that among the general public, Facebook is quite heavily used with a third (34%) saying they have a Facebook profile. Myspace (5%) and blogs (3%) are far less prevalent among the public but instant messaging services (32%) are quite heavily used by Canadians. Wireless communication via cell phones (70%) is widespread, but not the Blackberry (10%), although one-in-ten is not a small number.

Technological profile
			Aboriginal
	Total 2008	Youth	Total	Urban	Rural	Immigrant/ Visible minorities
n =	2,500	500	500	172	315	500
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Internet at home	81	95	68	76	64	81
Profile on Facebook	34	73	34	41	31	25
Profile on Myspace	5	12	8	8	8	5
A blog	3	7	7	7	8	4
A cell phone	70	77	61	67	57	68
A Blackberry	10	8	6	8	5	10
An instant messaging service such as MSN Messenger or ICQ	32	77	43	38	45	31
Ever discuss politics on-line
Yes	12	27	11	-	1	17
Often	2	5	2	1	2	3
Sometimes	10	22	9	8	11	14
Never	88	73	89	90	87	83

Across the various sub-groups, youth lead the way in the adoption of most technologies, with very high use of Facebook (73%) reported, but use of Myspace (12%) is at best a distant second as is blogging (7%) among youth. Instant messaging (77%) though is heavily subscribed to by youth. Cell phone (77%) use is also high for this group.

For Aboriginal Canadians, while reported home Internet usage (68%) is somewhat below the national figure it is still a large majority. One issue in analysing these results for Aboriginal Canadians is that use of technology varies between urban and rural residents. Among urban Aboriginal Canadians, 76 percent report home Internet use compared with 64 percent for those in rural areas. However, Facebook (34%) usage is comparable to that of other Canadians and higher among Aboriginal urban residents (41%). The use of Myspace (8%) and blogging (7%), while low, are above average compared with Canadians overall and equally used by Aboriginal urban and rural residents. Cell phone use is also quite high (61%) and especially among urban residents (67%), as is the use of instant messaging services (43%). This service is used more among those living in rural (45%) rather than urban (38%) areas.

B. On-line Discussion of Politics

While on-line technologies are widely used, politics is not an everyday topic of discussion on-line for most Canadians, although one-in-eight (12%) do report discussing politics on-line at least sometimes. Frequent political discussion on-line however, is limited to just 2 percent of the population. Like many other aspects of new technologies, on-line discussion of politics is a generational phenomenon, with those under 35 years of age being far more likely to report on-line political discussions than older Canadians (18% to 9%). At the same time, those who are members of a political party (22%) also make use of the Internet for on-line political discussions.

Discuss politics on-line
	Canadian population
	Total 2008	18‑34	35+	Political party member
n =	2,500	691	1,820	149
	%	%	%	%
Yes (often/sometimes)	12	18	9	22
No	88	82	91	77

The generational aspect of on-line political discussions is readily apparent among youth. In all, over a quarter of youth (27%) report at least sometimes discussing politics on-line, with 5 percent saying they do so often. This phenomenon is not just restricted to youth who report voting in the 2008 general election. Even among those who did not vote, 19 percent report discussing politics on-line at least sometimes. The implication here is that opportunities exist to explore the use of new media to engage youth in the electoral process.

Among Aboriginal Canadians, use of the Internet to discuss politics (11%) is in line with the figures for the population overall, while usage by immigrants and visible minorities is slightly higher (17%).

C. Technology Usage and Voting

The growth in the use of the Internet, wireless technologies and a wide variety of social media is having a profound impact on the economic and social life of Canadians. Given this transformation, an obvious issue is the impact this might have on turnout. It is apparent, based on responses to the two questions explored and reviewed earlier in this report, that there is quite strong interest in on-line registration and voting, but it is far from clear if the use of such technologies will lead to enhanced levels of voting. One way of exploring this issue is to examine the relationship between the use of technologies and voting behaviour.

When this issue is explored it is clear that no simple relationship between the use of technology and voting exists. First, among the public overall, those with Internet access at home are marginally more likely to report voting than those with no Internet access (74% versus 71%). While this difference is statistically significant, it is small. Significant differences, however, are found when the use of Facebook and Myspace are examined. In both cases, those not using these media are more likely to report voting in the 2008 general election. Among Facebook users, 67% report voting compared with 77% for non-users; the same pattern is apparent for Myspace. However, further analysis shows that this pattern is an artefact of age; social media users are younger and younger people are less likely to vote. Further evidence for the lack of a relationship between technological usage and voting is found on the issue of discussing politics on-line. While about 12 percent of the public with home Internet access report discussing politics on-line at least sometimes, this group is no more likely to report voting in the 2008 election than those who do not discuss politics on-line.

Among youth, as might be expected, technological and social media use is very high. However, there is a limited relationship between this usage and voting in the 2008 general election. Engagement with social media (Facebook or Myspace) shows no relationship between use and voting behaviour. The only finding of significance is that, unlike the public overall, youth who report discussing politics on-line at least occasionally are more likely to report voting in the 2008 general election (74% versus 59%) relative to those who do not discuss politics.

In contrast to the limited relationship between technology use and turnout among youth, a fairly consistent relationship between turnout and technology use is apparent among Aboriginal Canadians. Those with home Internet access, relative to those without, are more likely to report voting in 2008 (57% versus 48%). The same pattern is apparent for those with a profile on Facebook (58% to 51%) and with a cell phone (60% to 44%), but not an instant messaging service (46% to 59%). Finally, there is no relationship between discussing politics on-line and turnout among this group.

D. Socio-Demographic Overview of Surveyed Population

The table below provides a reference overview of the characteristics of the general public and the other populations sampled for the survey of electors and non-electors to the 40th general election.

Socio-demographic variables		n	%	Margin of error (%)
Gender	Men	1,405	42	+/- 2.61
Gender	Women	1,943	58	+/- 2.22
Age group	18–24 (young electors)	555	17	+/- 4.16
	25–34	424	13	+/- 4.76
	35–44	548	16	+/- 4.19
	45–54	638	19	+/- 3.88
	55–64	577	17	+/- 4.08
	65 and over	606	18	+/- 3.98
Youth	Students	314	9	+/- 5.53
Youth	Living with parent(s)	323	10	+/- 5.45
First language	English	2,039	61	+/- 2.17
	French	763	23	+/- 3.55
	Other	541	16	+/- 4.21
Country of birth	Canada	2,852	86	+/- 1.84
Country of birth	Other	485	14	+/- 4.45
Immigrant/Visible minority	Immigrated before 1970	179	5	+/- 7.32
	Immigrated in 1970 or later	229	9	+/- 6.48
	Visible minority	92	3	+/- 10.22
Education level	Elementary/high school/none	1,306	40	+/- 2.71
	Technical/college/CEGEP	836	25	+/- 3.39
	University	1,166	35	+/- 2.87
Household income	Less than $20,000	351	12	+/- 5.23
	$20,000–$39,999	627	22	+/- 3.91
	$40,000–$59,999	553	19	+/- 4.17
	$60,000–$79,999	421	15	+/- 4.78
	$80,000–$99,999	312	11	+/- 5.55
	$100,000 and over	598	21	+/- 4.01
Rural/urban	Rural	813	75	+/- 3.44
Rural/urban	Urban	2,468	25	+/- 1.97
Aboriginal	First Nation: on-reserve	253	8	+/- 6.16
	First Nation: off-reserve	109	3	+/- 9.58
	Métis	104	3	+/- 9.61
	Inuit	49	2	+/- 14.00
Special needs	Persons with disabilities	230	7	+/- 6.46
Total sample		3,348	100	+/- 1.69

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