Article Added On: December 03, 2004 - over 3 years ago
Title: US/Canada Poll Finds Some Similar Views
Author: Gloria Galloway
Publication: The Globe and Mail
Publication Date: January 01, 2004 - over 4 years ago
Themes: religious attitudes in Canada

Description: Americans and Canadians share similar views on faith.

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OTTAWA -- Canadians see fundamental differences between themselves and their southern neighbours, but they believe they are living up to their obligations on international security -- and Americans agree.

About seven in 10 people on both sides of the border who were polled late last week by Ipsos-Reid for The Globe and Mail and CTV disagreed with the statement that a terrorist attack will likely be launched in Canada.

And a majority of both Canadians and Americans agreed Canada is doing its share to ensure the border is secure and terrorists are being prevented from entering the United States -- although the confidence was greater this side of the border.

'On critical issues in our social-values structure, such as the death penalty and a whole series of other issues like religion and education and same-sex and stuff like that, we are quite divergent,' said John Wright, senior vice-president for Ipsos-Reid.

But 'on the issue of whether we have done our share and whether terrorists will come in from the border and do things to them, it's interesting that we are both the same. We have this myth that Americans think we have a border which is going to be leaking terrorists, or we believe that Americans think we are not contributing enough. And, frankly that's not the case. On that side, we're doing okay.' In fact, 58 per cent of Americans polled said Canada was doing a good job on border security, just 15 per cent fewer than the number of Canadian respondents who felt the same way.

The pollster surveyed 1,000 people in both countries between Nov. 19 and 22. The survey is expected to reflect the feelings of the general population accurately within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times in 20.

The poll was the second part of a larger study that examined the way people from the two countries view each other. And while there was relative concordance on security issues, there were some noteworthy differences.

Eight out of 10 Canadians, for instance, agreed that Canadians were fundamentally different in their values and outlook than people from the United States, while just half of the Americans felt that way.

A majority of the Americans surveyed -- 60 per cent -- very much agreed that their religious faith was important to them in daily life. Only 33 per cent of Canadians said the same. Those numbers have not fluctuated much over the past 12 years, Mr. Wright said. Seventy-one per cent of the Americans supported the death penalty, a number that dropped to 42 per cent among the Canadians polled.

But 'despite all the issues that have occurred during the course of this administration, whether it be members of Parliament speaking out or [Canada] not being in Iraq or having vocal criticism on the Bush administration,' Mr. Wright said, 'at the end of the day, only 15 per cent of Canadians are anti-American. And, frankly, at the end of the day, equal numbers on both sides of the border have similar views on our security numbers and that we are actually good friends and allies.'