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A study that compares Canadian attitudes today to those held 50 years ago suggests our country is less patriarchal, less religious and vastly more tolerant of gay people, intermarriage — and tight pants.

Yet Canadians celebrating the country’s centennial in 1967 also displayed more optimism than those marking this year’s sesquicentennial.

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“It’s interesting to recollect what the country was like at the centennial and compare it to where things are today: to understand how we’ve changed,” said Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies, which conducted the analysis.

The association examined national Gallup polls conducted in 1967, then hired Montreal’s Léger Marketing to ask similar questions of 1,700 Canadians earlier this year.

Not surprisingly, researchers found that social mores in Canada have changed dramatically. In fact, Jedwab said he had to eliminate some of the questions asked by pollsters 50 years ago simply because they were offensive in today’s context.