Canadians are overwhelmingly in favour of mandatory national service for young adults but are less united about what form that service should take, a new survey has found. 

The survey, produced by the non-profit Angus Reid Institute, asked a group of Canadians if they supported the idea of mandatory national service – that is, one year of time donated for those younger than 30 years of age – across a number of fields. Many nations including Germany, France and Norway have instituted this practice in recent years.

Respondents were overwhelmingly in favour of Canada adopting the practice across a range of disciplines. For instance, 74 per cent favoured a year of public health support service, with only 18 per cent against and 8 per cent undecided.

When asked about other options for service, the numbers remained high. For environmental support service, 73 per cent were in favour. Youth service garnered 72 per cent support, and civil protection had 70 per cent in favour.

The numbers dropped, however, when respondents were asked about compulsory military service. In this category, only 43 per cent were in favour, while 44 per cent opposed the idea, and 12 per cent weren’t sure.

The breakdown between the sexes was even more stark on the question on military service. When the pollsters calculated support minus opposition (the percentage in favour minus the percentage opposed), they found that males generated positive numbers, meaning there were more respondents for the idea than against it. (Although notably the 18-to-29 cohort who would be most affected by such a measure still created a negative number, meaning more were against the idea than for it.

Across the female respondents, however, support minus opposition was a negative number for every age group, except for a slight positive in the 60-and-older respondents.

When asked: “If Canada were to introduce one form of mandatory national service for young adults, which would you prefer?” respondents overwhelmingly chose civilian (i.e., non-military) service, with 59 per cent picking that option versus 19 per cent who chose military, and 13 per cent who said neither.

Asked about the potential benefits of mandatory non-military service, most respondents said the personal development of young adults would be improved by the practice, with 40 per cent saying it would be greatly improved, and another 42 per cent saying it would be somewhat improved, for a total of 82 per cent.

Quality of public service was also seen as a potential benefit, with 71 per cent saying it would be improved or greatly improved. And social cohesion in Canada was viewed as a beneficiary by 69 per cent.

Asked about the potential benefits of military service, were it to happen, more than half (64 per cent) still thought it would help personal development of young adults, while 51 per cent said it would improve the quality of public service, and 52 per cent said it would help social cohesion. Between 21 and 26 per cent felt these areas would be worsened by compulsory military service, however.

The survey was conducted online among a sample of 1,619 Canadians who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. The results are considered to have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 per cent, 19 times out of 20.