Regional Heterogeneity and Policy Preferences in Canada: 1979-2006.

The publication of Small Worlds in 1980 constituted a landmark in the study of Canadian politics. This contribution re-assesses the central findings of regional similarity and convergence in opinion preferences on public policy as observed in the original chapter by Richard Simeon and Donald Blake. Using public opinion data from the past 30 years, three central findings emerge: the presence of non-trivial levels of regional variation in public policy preferences; policy preference heterogeneity tends to be comparable to or greater than differences based on other socio-demographic features of Canadian society, and; regional preference heterogeneity since 1980 has increased and remains prominent even when separating out the effects of the Quebec issue. As a result, the contribution concludes that region is an important source of heterogeneity in Canadians' public policy preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]