Canadians have been divided on the idea of closing off the border, suggests a new survey that has also found what the pollster calls a “warning sign” about xenophobia in this country amid the escalating COVID-19 pandemic.

The survey commissioned and released by the Association for Canadian Studies on Tuesday showed 49 per cent of respondents agreed Ottawa should shut down the border to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus — with women more likely than men to say that they were in favour of the move.

The poll of 1,479 Canadians across the country was conducted last week, just before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced plans Monday to bar anyone from entering Canada except Canadian citizens, permanent residents and Americans.

"It was conducted before the restrictions on international travel and border closing were introduced. Depending on the number of new cases in the coming days, we will see how the debates evolve about stricter measures with our neighbour (to the south)," Jack Jedwab, president of the association, told the Star.

The survey also revealed some Canadians' fear of people from Asia and Iran in the wake of the health crisis, a warning sign of heightened xenophobia in Canada, said Jedwab.

Almost a third of respondents said they were very worried or somewhat worried about coming into contact with Asians or Iranians due to the outbreak that first emerged in China in December and spread quickly to Korea and Japan, as well as to Iran.

"Canadians share a spectrum of fear, and their fear is going to magnify with the news,” Jedwab said. “We have to be mindful of the growing xenophobia in the country. It's a warning sign for all of us."

While both males and females were equally fearful of exposure to people with that heritage, respondents age 35 and above were more likely to be worried about interacting with Asians and Iranians than those between 18 and 34.

The survey was conducted via web panel by the firm Leger Marketing and has a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

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