B.C. Votes 2017: Ride hailing, carbon tax are the issues that divide generations
Millennials also think First Nations should have more say in how natural resources are used
B.C. voters of all ages agree the wealthy should pay more tax, but questions around ride hailing, carbon taxes and how much say First Nations should have over resource use are where the generational divisions emerge.
The findings come from an analysis of data from Vote Compass, an online tool that asks B.C. voters to express their views on election issues and tells them which party their views most align with.
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The question with the biggest range of opinions among generations is whether ride-hailing services such as Uber should be allowed to operate in B.C. Millennials agreed most strongly with this statement, with agreement tapering off to neutral among older respondents.
There was also a noticeable split on the question of how much influence First Nations should have over how natural resources are used. Older voters were neutral on this question, while millennials were more likely to say First Nations should have more say.
Millennials were also the most likely to say B.C.'s carbon tax should be increased, with support dropping off among older age groups.
On whether the Kinder Morgan pipeline should be allowed to proceed, all age groups were fairly neutral, but millennials were most likely to say it should not go ahead.
Subsidized daycare, an issue often cited as an inter-generational sticking point, was most popular among millennials. Other age groups, including younger members of Gen X who are still in their childbearing years, were more neutral on the question.
About Vote Compass
Developed by a team of social and statistical scientists from Vox Pop Labs, Vote Compass is a civic engagement application offered in British Columbia exclusively by CBC News.
The findings are based on 3,944 respondents who participated in Vote Compass from April 17 to April 24, 2017.
Unlike online opinion polls, respondents to Vote Compass are not pre-selected. Similar to opinion polls, however, the data is a non-random sample from the population and has been weighted in order to approximate a representative sample.
Vote Compass data has been weighted by geography, gender, age, educational attainment, occupation, religion, income and language to ensure the sample's composition reflects that of the actual population of British Columbia, according to census data and other population estimates.