Canada’s most prominent right-wing think tank has published quite a few howlers over the years, from a blog that denounced Mary Poppins as communist propaganda to an annual report that uses various kinds of methodological hokum to wildly exaggerate the taxes people pay. For this reason, there was initially good cause to take the headlines about new Fraser Institute (FI) polling on the question of support for socialism with a grain of salt. But the data — commissioned by FI though actually conducted by the mainstream firm Leger — is actually quite interesting, even if the framing offered by the institute is typically reactionary.

Conducted among a total of just over four thousand respondents in Canada, the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom last year, the survey’s top-line finding is that the idea of socialism finds a surprisingly warm reception in all four countries, particularly among the young.

“One major objective of this study is to better understand perceptions of and support for capitalism and more importantly socialism, as well as how attitudes towards capitalism and socialism differ across age groups,” the authors write, adding of their findings: “Perhaps most indicative of broad support for socialism among respondents is the fact that all age groups across all four countries agreed, to varying extents, that a transition to socialism would improve the economy and well-being of their citizens.”