Vote Compass: Men generally OK with strippers in bars, women opposed

Most Saskatchewan men believe strippers in bars should be legal, while most women think it's a bad idea, a Vote Compass report says.

A dramaticdivide along gender lines on the stripping-and-alcohol question was one of the findings of the most recent report fromVote Compass, which isCBC'scitizen engagement application.

The report says that 40 per cent of Saskatchewan people agree with the following statement: "Strip clubs should be legal in Saskatchewan."

On the other hand, 34 per cent disagreed with legalizing strip clubs.

Saskatchewan legalized stripping where alcohol is served in2014 following a decades-long ban, but Premier Brad Wall changed his mind in 2015 and the prohibitioncame back.

"Rarely do we see an issue like this on which all the parties are aligned, despite there being a clear split in public opinion,"said GregoryKerr, research manager for Vox Pop Labs, which created Vote Compass for CBC.

"In this case, all parties oppose legalizing strip clubs, despite the fact that 40 per centof the population says strip clubs should be legal."

The male-female split is a key factor in how the votes were distributed.

While 45 per cent of women said they disagreed with the idea of legal strip clubs, 55 per cent of men said they agreed.

The findings are based on 11,425 respondents whoparticipated in VoteCompass from March 7to March 28.

The online tool lets people find out where they fit in on the political landscape in relation to the Saskatchewan Party, the New Democrats, the Liberal Party and the Greens.

• Vote Compass: stripping, school prayer, gay-straight alliances

It also lets the public weigh in on issues that could come up during the campaign. The economy andhealth care have proven to be the two issues the public caresabout the most.

• Vote Compass: Try out our citizen engagement application

The latest report from Vox Pop Labs asked the public about stripping in bars, but also about school prayer and gay-straight alliances.

When people were asked if public schools should start the day with a Christian prayer, the results spanned the spectrum.

Some 40 per cent said they disagreed, 35 per cent were in favour and 25 per cent were neutral. The remaining one per cent said they didn't know.

Saskatchewan Party supporters tended to be more friendly to the idea of school prayer than people leaning to the other parties.

"While a majority of Green, Liberal and NDP supporters oppose starting the day in public schools with Christian prayer, only 28 per centof Saskatchewan Party voters share the same opinion," Kerr said. "Youth are more likely to oppose this practice, as are those who do not have any religious affiliation. "

Rarely do we see an issue like this [strip clubs]on which all the parties are aligned, despite there being a clear split in public opinion.Greg Kerr,. Vox Pop Labs

A third question asked Saskatchewan residents whether all schools in the province should be legally required to permit gay-straight alliance groups.

More people said they supported this measure than opposed: 46 per cent versus 28 per cent.

Once again, Sask. Party supporters tended to be cooler to the proposal compared to everyone else and24 per cent of them said theystrongly disagreed.

"Unlike the issue of strip clubs, that of gay-straight alliances illustrates a clear ideological divide, though opinion seems to crystallize somewhat more uniformly among left-leaning voters than among those who identify as belonging to the right," Kerr said.

Saskatchewan voters go to the polls on April 4.

About Vote Compass

Developed by a team of social and statistical scientists from Vox Pop Labs, VoteCompass is a civic engagement application offered in Canada exclusively by CBCNews. The findings are based on 11,425respondents who participated in VoteCompass from March 9to March 28, 2016. Unlike online opinion polls, respondentsto Vote Compass are not pre-selected.

Similar to opinion polls, however,the data are a non-random sample from the population and have been weightedin order to approximate a representative sample. Vote Compass data havebeen weighted by geography, gender, age, educational attainment, occupation,and religion to ensure the sample's composition reflects that of the actualpopulation of Saskatchewan according to census data and other populationestimates.