Many Canadians not attached to the nickel, new polls says

It looks like there aren't as many Canadians attached to the nickel as many in Sudbury would hope.

A new poll from Research Co. has determined two out of every five Canadians would be OK with taking the five-cent coin out of circulation.

"We looked into the issue of how people felt about the penny back in 2019 and this year, we continue to see more than two-thirds of Canadians are happy about the fact that they're not carrying pennies around," Mario Canseco, Research Co.'s president.

"But the real conversation has started around what to do with the nickel."

According to Canseco's findings, 40 per cent of Canadians feel it should be dropped, 49 per cent believe the nickel should stay and 11 per cent are undecided.

This is down by six per cent from the last poll on the subject in 2019.

The study also looked at gender, determining that 47 per cent of men were okay with its cancellation as opposed to 33 per cent of women.

And breaking it down by province, Ontario appears to be one of the least attached to the five-cent coin with only 47 per cent saying keep it.

"Part of it is the problem with the nickel, it doesn't really pay for much these days and now you have machines, parking meters, vending machines for soda that do not take nickels anymore," he said.

"So we're starting to move back into that situation that we faced back in 2012-2013 where the penny was no longer used to be able to buy things."

Canseco said the trends could push Canadians more in that direction as we continue to move into more of a cashless society, with people paying more often with their debit or credit cards.

"It's not a majority of people who would like to see this happen, but there's 40 per cent who are out there saying 'I'm not really using nickels for anything, so I'd be happy if they were taken away from our hands,'" he added.

According to the Royal Canadian Mint, three billion nickels have been circulated since 2000. It also said the Government of Canada currently has no plans to discontinue the coin, as they've been crucial to rounding up in cash transactions.

Sudbury is a city that's built itself up around its connection to the famous coin and the iconic landmark, the 'Big Nickel,' that sits outside Dynamic Earth. The structure was built in 1964 and is an exact replica of the 1951 Canadian nickel which sits near Vale's Copper Cliff nickel refinery.

The poll is one that's gotten a lot of people talking, including Pure Country 91.7 Sudbury morning show co-host Bryan Cooper.

"I'll be honest with you, I'm still getting used to the penny not being a thing. I still have some at home, I think, so to take another coin away, I'm not sure how I feel about that," laughed Cooper.

"That's going to flip my whole world upside down. I'm a little sensitive to change, pun intended."

The 'Big Nickel' also sits in City Councillor Mark Signoretti's ward. He said it would be tough to see the coin disappear from our change.

"We can't do that. The 'Big Nickel' has been around as long as I have been around and I don't want to date myself, but I'm sure it's been around before even my time," Signoretti said.

Staff at the Big Nickel/Dynamic Earth said the city's connection to the coin pre-dates even the iconic landmark and goes back decades.

"A lot of people think the nickel is not made of nickel because it's made of stainless steel, but nickel is the key ingredient that makes it stainless," said Dynamic Earth's Emilie Fournier.

A nod to the five-cent nickel can be seen in local store names to the name of the city's basketball team, the Sudbury Five.

Tourists outside the 'Big Nickel' on Wednesday told CTV News they weren't too impressed to hear the idea or the numbers from the poll.

"It seems like kind of pointless to get rid of it at this point. Maybe stopping production would be okay because we have a lot of nickels now, but I think getting rid of it, it would just round up things by 10 cents and we'd be using a lot of dimes and stuff," said a tourist named Damon.

"That's awful. That's an awful thought, but I guess that's the way society is going nowadays isn't it? With getting into cryptocurrency," said another tourist from B.C.

Canseco said there is no need to panic just yet, it is just an informational poll.

"I think the landmark is going to be there for many more generations," he said.

Even if it's not, one day, people will come to see where nickel comes from and what the coins once looked like, he said. Adding, we may not be using it as much as we used to, but it's still an important part of Canadian history.

In the meantime, officials said the Sudbury landmark isn't going anywhere and will continue to tower over the city for the foreseeable future.