But they think at the same time that welfare recipients are lazy layabouts who aren't trying hard enough to find work. They want government to do more to help people, but they also want the state to privatize public services to make them more efficient. On the question of honesty, opinion is divided again. Four of five would hesitate to buy stolen property, but two out of three would have no compunction about cheating on their taxes. Quebecers show themselves to be a tolerant, open people.
Half think that a gay couple can raise a child just as well as a heterosexual couple can.
That is double the rate in the rest of Canada and the United States. About 84 per cent of francophones would not object if their child were to marry an immigrant. Young Quebecers, particularly the well educated among them, pay no attention to racial differences. So much of the poll's findings point to a community buffeted by unprecedented change. Within barely two generations, a homogeneous society has left behind in quick succession two defining bulwarks - first the church and now, increasingly, the state.