LILLEY: Canadians and Americans wary of a return to normal, says poll

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It will be a long time before most Canadians, and Americans for that matter, are ready to get back to a normal life — at least the life that we knew pre-pandemic.

With the United States increasingly reopening amid rising vaccination rates while Canada sees increasing restrictions — even a curfew in Quebec — a new poll shows residents of both countries will be cautious for some time to come.

When will you be comfortable eating a birthday cake after someone, who is not in your family, has blown out the candles? When will you be ready to eat at a buffet restaurant? Attend a large dinner party? Stop wearing a mask on a regular basis?

“There is an abundance of caution on almost every level of what we are going to engage with when our societies begin to open up,” said John Wright, executive vice-president of Maru Public Opinion.

Maru has been tracking how citizens in Canada, the United States, and United Kingdom feel about COVID-19 for the last year. This poll consisted of surveying 1,519 Canadians and 1,516 Americans in the middle of March.

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While on some fronts, Americans appear far more eager to return to a normal life, in other areas they are very close to the Canadian view.

The poll asked people when they would feel comfortable taking part in certain activities and then determined a date where 75% of the population said they would feel comfortable taking part.

While it will be February 2022 before 75% of Canadians say they will feel comfortable vacationing overnight within driving distance, 75% of Americans say they will be ready to do that by Christmas. In both countries, it will be February 2022 before 75% of the population will be ready to exercise at a gym or fitness studio.

Some things will take longer.

It will be September 2022 before 75% of Canadians say that they’ll be comfortable eating a birthday cake after someone who isn’t family has blown out the candles. American say they will be ready for that by June 2022.

By the end of July 2022, 75% of Americans say they will be comfortable eating in a buffet restaurant while for Canadians, that level of comfort will come in September.

On the big question of wearing masks, 75% of Canadians estimate that it will be October 2022 before they will feel comfortable going out without routinely wearing a mask while Americans are one month early in September 2022.

The report from Maru also showed at what point 50% of the population would partake in the same activities. The lower threshold moved up the dates for some activities dramatically, such as February to stop wearing a mask instead of October.

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 Wright said this points to the weariness of some parts of the population to return to normal.

“There is a deeper concern with engagement for certain activities, and it will take some time to overcome that,” Wright said.

He added that several factors could change when people are willing to participate in these activities, noting that the poll was conducted prior to the rise of the third wave in Canada and before the Americans were vaccinating more than 4 million people per day.

The polls in both countries were conducted online using Maru’s panel between March 17-19 and are considered accurate to within 2.5%.