MONTREAL — The number of Canadians who claim to have no religion at all more than doubled in 13 years to 27 percent in 2000, according to a senior social scientist with Statistics Canada.
“By any means this is an extraordinary shift,” Paul Reed told last week’s Pluralism, Religion and Public Policy conference at McGill University.
British Columbia led the country with 55 percent of residents claiming to be nonbelievers, Reed said. It was followed by the Prairies at 33 percent, Ontario (28 percent), Atlantic Canada (17 percent) and Quebec (7 percent).
Reed said that while 43 percent of Canadian adults say they never attend church, a growing number is looking outside organized religion for spiritual fulfillment.
Featured speakers at the conference were Preston Manning, former leader of the Reform Party, and Claude Ryan, the one-time leader of the Quebec Liberals. Both said that despite growing secularism in Canadian society, religion still has a place in the development of public policy.
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