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Residents of Metro Vancouver are only moderately committed to democracy and many are open to alternative forms of government such as rule by expert, strongman or the military.

Those are among some of the findings of a new public opinion survey from Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue.

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The online survey of 1,506 Metro Vancouver residents from Aug. 7-13 was released in a report this week as part of a larger project intended to build a stronger commitment to Canadian democracy, according to the report.

The survey found about 35 per cent of residents believe representative democracy is a good way to govern and that all other systems are bad. Another 47 per cent believed representative government was good, but other systems were too. And 17 per cent said only other systems — or no systems — were good.

About 61 per cent of respondents believed direct democracy was a good or very good way to govern. Rule by experts, rule by a strong leader and rule by the military received 50, 20 and nine per cent support, respectively.