What are Canadians angry about? New 'Rage Index' aims to find out

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With rage towards governments, the economy and current events rampantly expressed on social media and during protests, it wouldn’t take a data scientist to determine that Canadians are angry. But a new study aims to track and quantify the rage in comprehensive ways.

Canadian research consulting firm Pollara Strategic Insights has launched a “Rage Index,” hoping to measure the mood of Canadians every month.

The tracker surveys thousands of respondents to gain insights on perspectives about hot topics including inflation, government policy decisions, and economic outlooks.

Of the 2,013 respondents surveyed between Jul. 25 and Aug. 2, 48 per cent reported that they are upset with the Ottawa’s policy decisions, and 83 per cent were angry with inflation rates. In addition, 79 per cent of the participants reported being angry at rising gas prices, and 55 per cent were angered by the current state of the housing market.

Dan Arnold, the chief strategy officer with Pollara Strategic Insights, succinctly summarized the findings: “A lot of people just seem grumpy right now,” he told CTV News Channel on Monday.

“I think coming out of this pandemic, we kind of hoped this would be like a ‘D-Day’ moment, where there would be this euphoria, but instead it seems like there’s a lot of frustration that’s kind of built up the past couple of years [which] is now bubbling to the surface in many different ways.”

Arnold said that economic pressure is at the “forefront” of Canadian frustration.

“You’ve got eight in 10 people who are angry about inflation and gas prices,” he said.

“I think this is something that touches everybody. Not everybody needs a passport or flies on an airplane, but everyone buys [food] at the grocery store. And when you see prices going up, and you see that every week when you go to fill up your shopping cart, it really just gets to people.”

According to the report’s key findings, feelings of intense rage are still “limited to a vocal minority.”

“I think it’s something we want to track going forward to see how this changes over time,” Arnold said.

He added that, “We want to see if this frustration becomes intense rage over time. And we obviously hope that it doesn’t.”