A vast majority of Canadians support the tighter restrictions on international travel imposed by the federal government, a new poll suggests. Almost nine out of 10 respondents to the online survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies supported new the measures introduced last week, and virtually the same amount (87 percent) said the government should go further.

According to the survey, 86 percent of respondents said they agree the with stricter measures that suspend flights to most sun destinations and require quarantining at a hotel at the passenger’s expense upon arrival in Canada.

The poll also found that 87 percent of respondents think the government should ban all international travel until there are several consecutive days of reduced COVID-19 numbers.

The wariness of foreign trips stems in part from more transmissible – and possibly more lethal – variants of the virus emerging abroad as well as homegrown politicians jetting off to far-flung beaches during the holidays, says Leger executive VP Christian Bourque.

“We probably would not have gotten such high numbers before the whole talk about the South African variant, the Brazil variant,” Bourque said. “I think this probably jolted Canadians in a way.

“And then when you see people coming back with a very nice tan, you’re thinking, ‘Why am I making the effort and you’re not?’ And in certain cases, it was MLAs and even (provincial) cabinet ministers, senators and MPs,” he noted.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced last Friday that Canadian airlines have suspended flights to Mexico and the Caribbean until April 30 and that returning passengers will soon have to self-isolate at a federal facility for up to three days after taking a PCR test at the airport.

Trudeau said “rare exceptions” to new travel restrictions will be made on compassionate grounds, but that more contagious COVID-19 variants now taking hold in Canada mean tough rules must be implemented in the next few weeks. The Public Health Agency of Canada says foreigners can still apply to enter the country for non-essential reasons that include supporting a critically ill person, attending a funeral or being with a loved one who is dying.

The reaction to the toughened restrictions differed depending on geography, with 91 percent of respondents from Quebec and Atlantic Canada in favour of the new restrictions but just three out of four Albertans backing the clampdown, the poll found.

The possibility of even stricter rules such as an outright ban on international travel raises questions around the flow of essential goods, many of which enter the country in the bellies of passenger planes, and around freedom of movement as guaranteed in the Canadian Constitution.

Section 6 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that “every citizen of Canada has the right to enter, remain in and leave Canada,” though all rights are subject to reasonable limits.

The urge for tougher travel rules comes as Canadians find their mental health on the wane, with just 29 percent of survey respondents rating it as very good or excellent, the lowest since the pandemic began.

“We’re getting into the doldrums of February, and things are not improving. If you look from November to today, it’s a steady decline in self-perception of the state of your mental health,” Bourque said.

Conducted Jan. 29-31, the online poll surveyed 1,559 Canadians. It cannot be assigned a margin of error because internet-based polls are not considered random samples.