TheChronicleHerald.ca is reporting that a recent Harris-Decima survey from The Canadian Press is showing that Canadians are “indifferent” to the atheist bus ads.  This is as opposed to the strong negative reactions to the ads in America and also Britain, which is more surprising than the American reaction considering that Britain is commonly considered much more secular.  There has been opposition from religious groups, such as the United Church of Canada, who have run their own counter bus ads.  There has not been outrage in the same way as in America and Britain, though.

From the article:

The poll found 32 per cent of respondents opposed the ads, 20 per cent supported them and 43 per cent didn’t care one way or the other.

Support for the ads was strongest among respondents in British Columbia and Ontario, with the highest opposition in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Support also varied by age and income, with younger respondents and those making more than $60,000 a year more likely to favour running the ads.

Some nonreligious activists might see this as a failure.  This is understandable; the more controversy they create the more visible they are and the further their message spreads.  I don’t see it this way.  From the beginning, organizers of the various bus ads have asserted that they are not meant to be insulting to the religious (although many do see  anything contrary to their beliefs as an insult), nor are they specifically geared towards creating controversy, although they certainly do want attention drawn to them so that people know they exist.  They ads were created mostly to let the nonreligious know they are not alone in a world dominated by the religious, and to let others know that we exist and we will demand our place in the public discourse, no matter how forcefully the bigots try to quiet our voices.
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