TORONTO - A new poll suggests Canadians are taking an increasingly gloomy view of the country's economic outlook, though they aren't as pessimistic as their neighbours to the south.
The joint survey by Harris-Decima and Investors Group indicates that Canadian consumer confidence has reached its lowest point in over two years.
The overall index fell to 81, down five points from the last survey in September, 2007.
It's the lowest level since September, 2005 when the index stood at 75.
Harris-Decima president Bruce Anderson says continuing bad economic news from the United States has made Canadians more wary of loosening their purse strings, but adds Canadian consumers have a more optimistic outlook than most Americans.
He also says Canadians believe the country's economy is resilient and are feeling more positive about medium- and long-term prospects.
"Really, if we look at the current state of confidence in the economy, you'd still have to say people feel the economy is fairly resilient,'' Anderson said in a telephone interview.
"They don't seem to be panicking about the news that they hear about economic weakness in the United States or even in the Canadian context.''
The U.S. economy has been staggered by a housing market that has sagged and sapped consumer confidence while plunging American mortgage lenders into crisis.
The effects of the U.S. slowdown are beginning to be felt north of the border, since Canada still exports three-quarters of its goods and services to the United States. A soaring loonie has also driven up the price of Canadian manufactured goods in its biggest market.
Sunday's poll, which surveyed more than 2,000 Canadian adults between Feb. 8 and Feb. 17, found that most people are concerned about the larger economic picture than the impact of turbulent stock markets on their personal finances.
Fifty-three per cent of respondents said the time is right for a major purchase, and 27 per cent felt they would find themselves in better financial shape a year from now. The poll's margin of error is given as plus or minus 2.2 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
"People seem more willing to believe that the economy at a macro level is going to deteriorate than they are willing to think that they personally are going to suffer,'' Anderson said.
Anderson said the results indicate Canadians may have become slightly desensitized to extensive media coverage of economic turmoil and international stock market swings.
While acknowledging that news from the U.S. has dampened the willingness of Canadians to spend freely, he said a series of fiscal false alarms have left consumers feeling reasonably sanguine.
"What Canadians have learned over the past 10 years or so is that in every instance when they consumed a lot of news coverage that said the economic sky was falling, it turned out not to be the case,'' he said.
The same holds true for the relationship between the two dominant North American economies, Anderson said.
Although Canadians acknowledge the close relationship between economic activity in the U.S. and growth at home, Anderson said consumers have also learned the Canadian economy has some independent components that are functioning well and take comfort in the country's history of bouncing back from hard times.
