Majority of Canadians correctly name first man to walk on moon: poll

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, a new poll finds a majority of Canadians can correctly name the first human to walk on the moon but only four in 10 regard it as the single greatest technological achievement of all-time.

The DART survey, which was exclusively provided to CityNews, reveals 85 per cent of those asked picked Neil Armstrong’s name from a list as the first person to walk on the moon. Armstrong was the subject of the 2018 movie First Man, which chronicled his journey as part of NASA’s mission to land on the moon.

While the moon landing represented the culmination of former U.S. president John F. Kennedy’s dream and decades of work for NASA, only 39 per cent of Canadians regard it as mankind’s single greatest technological achievement.

Space flight, though, continues to mystify Canadians with 47 per cent saying they would take part in commercial space flight and soar into earth’s orbit if they could afford it. Another 22 per cent said they would be prepared to take a one-way ticket to Mars and begin a new civilization.

The same survey also found only two per cent of those asked believe the 1969 moon walk was either staged or faked.

The survey was conducted among 1,512 randomly selected Canadian adults who are members of MARU/Blue’s Online panel on July 10 and is accurate to within plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.