Survey of Electors Following the40th General Election

XV. Community Involvement

Community involvement has long been seen as a social good (and most Canadians report some form of community engagement) and as one that is to be encouraged. And there are good reasons for this in terms of the benefits on voter participation. The links between community engagement as a volunteer and political engagement as a voter, while not overwhelmingly strong, they are clear as demonstrated in this section.

Canadians report reasonably high rates of community involvement, with a sizeable proportion (22%) claiming that they volunteer for community groups or not for profit organizations "often" and the plurality (42%) suggesting that they "sometimes" volunteer. In all, 35 percent report that they "never" volunteer. Those most likely to volunteer are Canadians over the age of 55 (28%). Those least likely to volunteer are the youngest age cohort. Similarly, the spirit of regular ("often") volunteerism is not nearly as strong among respondents from the youth oversample (16%), although large numbers (66%) of youth do report that they volunteer. Those with higher levels of education also tend to be more active volunteers than those with lower education levels.

Volunteerism/community involvement

	Total 2008	Youth	Aboriginal Canadians	Immigrant/ Visible minorities
n =	2,500	500	442	548
	%	%	%	%
Yes	65	66	70	61
Often	22	16	25	23
Sometimes	42	50	45	38
Never	35	32	29	38

Incidence of community group volunteerism by age

	Total 2008	18‑34	35‑44	45‑54	55+
n =	2,500	500	442	548	820
	%	%	%	%	%
Often	22	16	22	21	28
Sometimes	42	51	45	46	35
Never	35	33	33	33	37

2008Q.81	Do you often, sometimes or never volunteer for community groups or not-for-profit organizations?
2006Q.85	Have you ever worked as a volunteer for a community group or a not-for-profit organization?
Base:	Youth oversample and all respondents

Aboriginal Canadians are also frequent volunteers for community activity with 70 percent reporting some volunteer activity and a quarter reporting that they volunteer "often".

Regionally, residents of Atlantic Canada (76%) and Saskatchewan/Manitoba (77%) are the most likely to report volunteer activity. Quebec (50%) residents report the lowest level of voluntary activity.

While they are frequent volunteers, and consistent with the 39th general election findings, Canadians are not particularly inclined to be members of a federal political party (6%). Consistent with findings regarding general volunteerism, those over the age of 55 are the most likely to hold federal party membership (11%). Quebecers (4%) are the least likely to be members of a federal political party.

The relationship between voluntarism and voting behaviour is somewhat strong, with those who volunteer often (79%) or sometimes (76%) being more likely to report that they voted in the 2008 election then non volunteers (67%). This same pattern holds across all sub-populations, except for youth where there is no relationship between voluntarism and voting behaviour.

Community involvement and voting behaviour

	All Canadians			Youth			Aboriginal			Immigrant/ Visible minorities
	Often	Some- times	Never	Often	Some- times	Never	Often	Some- times	Never	Often	Some- times	Never
n =	542	1,081	869	79	250	164	125	227	146	116	191	190
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
Yes, voted in 2008 election	79	76	67	59	69	57	64	56	43	82	69	67

Q.81	Do you often, sometimes or never volunteer for community groups or not-for-profit organizations?
Base:	All respondents

Political party members are much more likely to report voting in 2008, and 90 percent report doing so.

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