UFOs and aliens are real, say half of polled British Columbians and Albertans

Nearly half of polled British Columbians believe in UFOs and aliens, yet when it comes to the province's legendary monsters, only about one in six believe the Ogopogo exists.

The results are part of a recent Insights West poll that asked British Columbians and Albertans about popular conspiracy theories.

According to the survey, a similar percentage of British Columbians and Albertans believe in UFOs, and that the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1963 was a conspiracy.

But a higher percentage of polled Albertans than British Columbians believed they are being deceived about global warming and about the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, in 1997.

"There's always this sense of something that cannot be explained easily," said Insights West's Mario Canseco in an interview with Daybreak South.

"When you have a situation where the government or the authority is essentially telling you, 'This is how we saw it happened,' — there seems to be this human nature that tells us there's something more to it.

"There has to be a reason that's even deeper and darker than what we are told happened."

Other survey results include 32 per cent of British Columbians believing government or pharmaceutical companies are withholding a cure for cancer, and 19 per cent believing 9/11 was a U.S.-government conspiracy.

According to the poll, very few British Columbians believe that Osama Bin Laden and Elvis are still alive, or that dinosaurs never existed, or that the lunar landings were a hoax.

The poll surveyed 801 British Columbians and 508 Albertans between Mar. 24 and 29. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points for B.C., and plus or minus 4.3 percentage points for Alberta.

To hear the full interview with Mario Canseco, listen to the audio labelled: Many British Columbians believe UFOs are real