Posted on 11/14/2005 5:20:52 PM PST by wagglebee
Canadians tend to dislike and fear George W. Bush, a new poll suggests. Seventy-three per cent expressed an unfavourable opinion of the U.S. President and 38% said they felt he was more dangerous to world security than Osama bin Laden.
Those results, however, should not be seen as sweeping anti-Americanism. While Mr. Bush is singularly disliked in Canada, the nation does not allow that feeling to taint its image of Americans as a whole. In fact, 68% of Canadians said they had a favourable opinion of Americans.
The poll of 1,016 randomly selected Canadians was conducted by Innovative Research Group for the Dominion Institute and the Canadian Defence & Foreign Affairs Institute. A corresponding survey of 1,000 Americans was also conducted on some questions for a comparison of national views. The results were provided to the National Post.
When Canadians and Americans were each asked their views on Mr. Bush, there was decidedly less love for the President north of the border. Forty-six per cent of respondents in Canada said they had a "very unfavourable" impression of Mr. Bush, while only 27% of U.S. respondents expressed that.
Another 27% of Canadians had a "somewhat unfavourable" impression of Mr. Bush compared with 16% of Americans.
While 25% of Americans said they were "very favourable" of Mr. Bush, only 5% of Canadians were similarly impressed, and while 23% of American said they were "somewhat favourably" impressed by Mr. Bush, only 16% of Canadians shared that view.
When residents of Canada and the United States were each asked who was more dangerous to world security, Mr. Bush or bin Laden, 73% of Americans said bin Laden, the al-Qaeda terrorist leader. Far less -- 21% -- said their own president was.
Opinion on that issue was far more divided in Canada.
Less than half (49%) of Canadians said bin Laden was more dangerous, with another 38% naming Mr. Bush.
"The results show that the rising tide of anti-Americanism in this country is driven not out of a dislike for the American people but as a visceral dislike of Mr. Bush and the war in Iraq," said Rudyard Griffiths, executive director of the Dominion Institute, a group promoting knowledge of Canadian history.
The poll may reflect a feeling that politicians already know.
Paul Martin, the Prime Minister, has been raising objections to U.S. policies as he draws closer to an election call. In his first radio address last month, he sternly lashed out at the U.S. stand on the softwood lumber dispute.
And when Jean Chretien, the former prime minister, was defending the legacy of his tenure in power in the face of the damning Gomery report, he highlighted as one of his key decisions his keeping Canada out of the U.S-led war in Iraq.
The public-opinion survey also suggests Canadians are deeply divided on the appropriate balance of resources dedicated to our military. Half of those questioned said Canada was pulling its weight on national defence, compared with 40% who said we were getting a free ride from the United States.
While Canadian opinion was split over the state of the country's military efforts since the end of the Second World War, the intensity of feelings over it are far from ambivalent.
Of the 50% of Canadians who felt that Canada was pulling its own weight on national defence, half of them described that view as one they "strongly" held.
Similarly, of the 40% who felt that Canada was getting a free ride from the United States on defence, 16% "strongly" held that view.
The survey was conducted in late October and is considered to have a margin of error of 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.
I like that ...
"Le PEN"
(Almost double entendre intended)
(It IS entendre, isn't it?)
"Don't be fooled. I was in Canada, British Columbia, for eight months a while ago. They hated us back in the seventies and I imagine they hate us even more now. I was generally referred to as "damn yankee.""
You should consider it lucky that the BC type of anti-Americanism is just like the US leftist variety and quite moderate in Canadian standards. The type you see in the centre of English Canada, Ontario out east, is mixed with a High Tory snobbery that makes you barf more.
"if Canucks would feel that way after Vancouver or Toronto became uninhabitable due to radiation from a dirty bomb or suitcase nuke."
According to Canadians "No, Toronto and Vancouver will never be attacked! We don't agree with the United States on the so-called war on terrorism and there is no reason they will attack us who are not in opposition to them!". Their twisted logic will stay with you until they die.
I didn't see in the pole the percentage of Canadians that like that the United States provides the lion's share of their security and stability (ie - they all live smack up against the US border and who is going to start a war with them knowing that the US will hand them their arse?).
They are kind of like that best friend who's parents are rich and buy him whatever he wants and he does nothing but trash them and talk back.
Actually what I think is that they don't even think of the US providing security guarantees at all. They just assume: hey we aren't offending to anyone, and the Arctic region has no significant territorial disputes; everyone plays by the rules of international laws so things must be fine.
I agree. For well over a century Canada has had the luxury of knowing that absolutely any threat to them will be dealt with by the US. This is why their per capita spending on defense is so low.
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/29xx/doc2976/NATO.pdf
They call BC, "The California of Canada" for a reason. I just wish more of those liberals who promised to move there would just do it and leave us alone.
The Jordanians had a similar train of thought, I'm sure and look what it got them?
Besides do they really think those Islamists are smart enough to tell the difference between a Canadian and an American accent?
The only way Canada will wake up is when these people themselves are killed in terrorist attacks, leaving the conservatives as survivors. They will not wake up from their delusions.
I'm really glad we weren't subjected to fat, gold chained, overly tanning bed tanned, speedo wearing Quebekkers this year. They stayed away. Yeah!!!!
100% of Islamic Terrorists disapprove of the job President Bush is doing
We didn't get that many in Virginia Beach this summer. I remember when I was in college and waited tables over the summer, they never tipped!
Not like anyone really cares what the Canucks think. Betcha' at least 73% of Americans don't have a clue who the PM of Canada is. But if Canada is twerked off about Bush now, can you imagine how they'd feel if Bush sent 'em a bill for nat'l defense services rendered.
Can we take the Delaware National Guard and wipe Canada out once and for all?
I was thinking a Cub Scout troop!
The anti-Americanism of many Canadians is pathological. You even see posts to newspapers praising and defending the likes of Iran and its right to nuclear weapons whilst at the same time condemning George Bush.
"Can we take the Delaware National Guard and wipe Canada out once and for all?"
Oh, haven't you heard of the War of 1812? We burned down your White House! Want to see if you can defend it again? </sacrasm>
Seriously, the War of 1812 was erupted when Canada didn't exist as a nation. It was the then British Empire which fought America - the same British Empire that required American bailouts in WWII. The soldiers were also mainly British as opposed to "Canadian", however how you define them. But don't tell any of these points to your Canadian "moderate"/leftist/High Tory friends. ;-)
Their anti-Americanism is no doubt encouraging the terrorists and contributing to the deaths of innocent people.
But the feds rape Alberta by redistributing the income from producing oil and gas to the other provinces.
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