A new poll claims to show the extent of the growing discontent in BC’s South Coast region, and their frustrations are enough that many people are thinking of leaving the so-called Best Coast over it.
According to a recent Angus Reid poll, respondents from Metro Vancouver, Vancouver Island/Northern BC, the Fraser Valley, and the BC interior were asked if they were seriously thinking of leaving British Columbia because of the cost of housing, and 20% of them in the Fraser Valley/Lower Mainland said they strongly agreed.
Whereas fewer people in Metro Vancouver felt the same way, about 18%. The BC Interior had the largest portion of respondents seriously thinking of leaving the province because of housing woes, at 21%.
More than half of those asked in Metro Vancouver said housing was an important issue for them, the highest in all of BC.
Looking at respondents’ ages, the younger they were, the more strongly they felt about BC’s lack of affordable housing options. Only 8% of those over the age of 55 said they were thinking about leaving, compared to 29% for those between the ages of 18 and 34.
Respondents with a university education also appeared less agreeable to leaving than those with only a high school education.
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When asked if they thought the BC NDP government had done enough to address housing issues in the province, about half of the respondents said that it had not.
While critics might question the answers here, it’s important to flag that the poll also combined Vancouver Island residents with Northern BC, two regions that are pretty different.
Read the full survey here.
The Angus Reid Institute conducted an online survey from May 24- 30, 2024 among a representative randomized sample of 1,250 British Columbian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum. The poll carries a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points 19 times
out of 20.