WHITEHORSE — People in Canada’s Far North live happily in igloos surrounded by penguins and protected by several military bases — at least, that’s what some of their fellow Canadians down south think.
Yellowknife-based Up Here magazine conducted a survey for its latest edition that shows just how little some Canadians know about life in the North.
Editor Katharine Sandiford said Yukon-based DataPath Systems conducted an online survey of just over 303 southern Canadians in February to evaluate their understanding of the culture and geography of the three territories.
She said the results from the “North Poll” were shocking and somewhat hilarious.
“Sixty-nine per cent of Canadians believe some northerners still live in igloos as their primary residence, 38 per cent don’t know the term Inuit replaced the term Eskimo, 50 per cent believe we have several military bases protecting the Northwest Passage,” she said.
A whopping 74 per cent of the Canadians who took the online survey thought penguins might live in the Arctic, while Sandiford said some Canadians weren’t aware that northerners pay taxes.
The magazine’s current edition cover has a picture of a penguin with the headline: “Shame on you Canada.”
“To the average Canuck, the Far North is a vast white-out, a wilderness of complete obscurity, the last frontier of the imagination,” said the article accompanying the interactive quiz that is still available online.
“What it’s not, say Canadians participating in the North Poll, is a place we know very much about.”
The multiple choice quiz asks 36 questions about the region’s culture, economy and geography.
The magazine worked with DataPath Systems of Marsh Lake, Yukon, to compile the survey. According DataPath’s website, the company is partly run by Donna Larsen, who has years of polling experience, including a stint as a vice-president with Angus Reid.
The margin of error for the February survey is plus or minus 5.6 per cent.
Sandiford said editors at the magazine came up with the poll as a conversation starter, but she said it proves that numerous misconceptions about the North still exist.
“Is it really a crime to be ignorant about life in the North? Perhaps it’s wilful — maybe the Canadian psyche needs the North to be a vast unknown,” the magazine’s editorial said.