Much Older Than Thought: The Religious-Secular Divide in Mid-Twentieth-Century Canadian Party Preferences

Abstract

Several studies have established the existence of religious–secular divisions in Canadians’ party preferences in recent elections. Previous research assumes that such differences arose with the emergence of issues often described as part of a culture war between religious and secular at the end of the twentieth century. This study, however, shows that such divisions are of older provenance. Using surveys of voters conducted in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s and controlling for the potential impact of opinions on culture-war issues, the results seen here demonstrate that the religious–secular divide is older than previously believed and not rooted in the proverbial culture wars. This suggests that the religious–secular divide in Canadian politics reflects an even more fundamental and long-standing tension between religious and secular authority.