The symbolic mosaic: an empirical typology of national symbolic webs and its effect on vote choice in Canada.

Diversity is at the core of any definition of Canada. But can different types of relationships among national symbols co-exist within the same national unit? And do these various symbolic assemblages have different effects on citizens' attitudes and behaviour? This paper uses survey data to uncover patterns in Canadians' attitudes towards 18 national symbols. The results indicate the existence of four distinct national symbolic 'webs'. The first two types are defined by conventional sociodemographic cleavage, while the difference between the two others is defined by the left-right ideological spectrum. In addition, further analysis shows that membership in these web-types is predictive of vote choice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]