Health care and unemployment continue to top the list of issues Canadians deem worrisome but, according to a monthly poll, priorities vary widely when broken down by region.

Every month, the pollsters ask 1,000 people across the country via an online panel which three of the following topics do you find the most worrying about Canada? The options include health care, taxes, crime, poverty/inequality, immigration control, unemployment/jobs, corruption, education, environment and moral decline.

While most people, regardless of region, said health care and unemployment/jobs were their top concerns, further down the list, provincial differences become clear.

John Wright, senior vice-president of Ipsos Public Affairs, which has conducted the monthly survey in Canada since 1990, said this is a very diversified country . . . while there may be an underlying concern about the economy and health care which is constant the next number of issues are very regionalized and for very distinct reasons.

Wright said the issues can often be linked to current events in each province, demonstrating the effect news stories and government announcements have on public opinion.

In Eastern Canada, unemployment and poverty are top of mind, while the No. 1 concern for Quebecers is corruption. Further west, citizens in the Manitoba and Saskatchewan provinces cite crime as their greatest worry, above both unemployment and health care. Meanwhile, concern over inequality/poverty has risen consistently in the Prairies since January. In Alberta, health care dwarfs any other concern. Wright said thats fuelled largely by strains on the system brought by an increased population looking for jobs in the provinces booming oilsands. And, in British Columbia, much like Ontario, unemployment and health care top the list of concerns. However, while the environment is a growing concern in B.C., Ontarians have recently been more focused on crime.

The big three concerns in Ontario were unemployment/jobs (50 per cent), health care (45 per cent) and taxes (32 per cent). The environment was last in line of issues keeping Ontarians up at night, with just 12 per cent, beat only slightly by education, at 13 per cent.

In Quebec, corruption (47 per cent) trumped health care (46 per cent) and taxes (32 per cent) as the major concern for citizens.

Wright said the ongoing Charbonneau commission, which is looking into allegations of corruption involving construction firms, local and provincial governments, political parties and organized crime, has raised that issue from 25 per cent in December 2011 to top of mind today.

In Saskatchewan and Manitoba, crime (38 per cent) and unemployment/jobs (35 per cent) were top of mind. Health care and poverty/inequality were tied at 33 per cent. Crime, although on a decline from a recent high in September 2011, when 60 per cent of prairie dwellers cited it among their three top concerns, still beat out corruption (23 per cent) and the Environment and Education, which were tied on the bottom rung at 13 per cent.

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Health care, jobs top concerns for Canadians: poll