According to Senior Vice-President Doug Anderson “Most Canadians expect there have been some instances of expenses wrongly claimed by MP’s and most are concerned about MPs’ refusal of the Auditor General’s request to publicly audit the expense claims. To date, the refusal is probably increasing the concern over this kind of behaviour and this survey suggests that a party endorsing the publication of expense claims may earn a net improvement in voter support as a result.”

• Majority aware of MPs’ refusal to allow the Auditor General to publicly audit their expense claims. Nationally, 64% had seen news items on this story, while 36% had not. Older Canadians were significantly more likely than those younger to have seen news items on this issue, although a majority of all age groups, in fact a majority of all demographic groups had seen news items on this.
• Most are concerned by MPs’ position. Fully 85% of Canadians have some concern over MPs’ refusal to allow the Auditor General to publicly audit their expense claims, including a majority (52%) who said they were very concerned. In fact, a majority in all regions, other than Quebec, said this news was ‘very concerning’. More than 3 in 4 Canadians in all demographic groups and regions said they were concerned about this news.
• Most believe it likely that not all claims followed the rules. Nationally, 80% felt it is likely that some are claiming expenses that are against the rules put in place for these types of claims, while just 12% felt it was unlikely. This is a consistent viewpoint from coast to coast and among all demographic groups, with no less than 76% among any group of Canadians saying it was likely claims are being made that are against the rules put in place.
• Among those who found it very concerning that an audit was being refused, 90% said it was likely claims were being made that were against the rules. Even among those who said the issue was ‘not at all concerning’, a majority (52%) said it was likely expense claims are being made that are against the rules.
• The data suggest a party announcing support for publicly releasing expense claims may find a net improvement in voter support as a result. Overall, the plurality (45%) say such a position would have no effect on their partisan support, but with 41% saying they’d be more likely to vote for a party in favour of publically releasing expense claims and only 9% said they’d be less likely to vote for a party on those grounds, taking such a position seems to bear more potential benefit than potential risk. Older Canadians, New Democrats, and those with lower household incomes were more likely than others to say they’d be more likely to vote for a party that supported publically releasing expense claims.

Each week, Harris/Decima interviews just over 1000 Canadians through teleVox, the company’s national telephone omnibus survey. These data were gathered between May 20 and May 23 2010. A sample of the same size has a margin of error of 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.