FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

4 May, 2026

OTTAWA – As Canada marks National Hospice Palliative Care Week (May 3-9, 2026), new polling data highlights the importance of palliative care education and the Canadian appetite for making palliative care improvements a priority.

In partnership with Cardus and the Palliative Institute, the Angus Reid Institute surveyed Canadians in April 2026 to assess understandings and views on palliative care.

The data found that a majority of Canadians incorrectly associate palliative care with comfort care at the end of life (64%). Just over half of respondents knew that palliative care can help patients manage the side effects of their medical treatment, and only one third knew that a goal of palliative care is to improve a person’s ability to participate in daily activities.

“Many people continue to associate palliative care with only the very end of life—yet palliative care should be introduced at the point of diagnosis and can support patients in parallel with curative treatments,” stated Rebecca Vachon, PhD, who directs Cardus’s Health research program.

After testing Canadians’ knowledge, the survey provided participants with a full definition of palliative care, assessing their experience with and perspectives on palliative care, in light of that definition. Four in five Canadians would consider palliative care if they were seriously ill, with three in ten agreeing that they would definitely want palliative care. Yet, three in ten are not confident that palliative care would be available to them if needed.

“It’s revealing that 71% of respondents highly value access to in-home support and palliative care services to remain home as long as possible,” states Dr. Leonie Herx, scientific director for the Palliative Institute. “Research has shown that too few Canadians have access to these services when needed at home, so there is much work to be done to bridge this gap.”

Significantly, 90% of Canadians agree that everyone should have a right to accessible and funded high-quality palliative care, yet this right currently is unrecognized in Canadian laws such as the Canada Health Act.

“These data underline the need for renewed leadership from both federal and provincial governments,” agrees Ray Pennings, Cardus executive vice president and co-founder. “Canadians deserve confidence that care will be there when they or their loved ones need it.”

Details on poll results, methodology, and sample sizes are freely available on the ARI website.

MEDIA INQUIRIES

Rebecca Vachon
Cardus – Director, Health Program,
media@cardus.ca

Shachi Kurl
Angus Reid Institute – President
604-908-1693
shachi.kurl@angusreid.org

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Cardus is a non-partisan think tank dedicated to clarifying and strengthening, through research and dialogue, the ways in which society’s institutions can work together for the common good.