TORONTO -- A majority of Canadians believe the country is moving in a positive direction, according to a new survey.

Two-thirds of Canadians, or 64.3% of those surveyed in the Nanos Mood of Canada poll, are thinking positively about the country despite a global recession last year. The number of people who think this way has jumped more than 10 percentage points from last year.

Last November, when the U.S. banking crisis had precipitated the greatest financial meltdown since the Great Depression, only about half of Canadians were confident that the country was moving in the right direction. Today, 33.2% of Canadians think the country is headed in the wrong direction and 2.5% of the 1,005 people surveyed were unsure.

Broken down by province, Quebec residents display a vast polarization on the issue with 48.8% of people thinking the country is headed in the right direction but 41.1% believing Canada is headed in the wrong direction.

The most positive reaction is from the Prairies, where more than three-quarters of those surveyed say they believe Canada is headed the right way. Of those Ontario residents surveyed, 66.7% are positive and 33.3% are negative.

In the other regions of the country, 71.8% of those in Atlantic Canada and 62.9% of those in B.C. believe the nation is taking the right steps.

The pollster also asked Canadians if they believe relations between the federal and provincial government have improved. On a scale of one to five, only 3.7% of Canadians think relations have improved, while 13.8% thought relations have definitely not improved.

On the question of Canada’s reputation around the world, 31.5% of Canadians questioned believe that our reputation had stayed the same, while a slightly smaller percentage, 31.2%, believe Canada’s reputation had improved slightly. Less than 10% believe that Canada’s reputation had not improved.