Poll: 52% Canadians see U.S. as a negative force in the world

Poll: 52% Canadians see U.S. as a negative force in the world

www.cbc.ca

U.S. cited as negative force in the world

While Canadians see the United States as important, when asked what countries stand out as being a negative force in the world, 52 per cent of respondents named the U.S.

The next most common answers were Iran (22 per cent), Iraq (19 per cent) and China (13 per cent).

"It's not necessarily a sign of anti-Americanism, but a concern about the direction the country is going," Neuman said.

(visit the link for the full news article)



[edit on 5-2-2008 by DimensionalDetective]

Can't say I blame them, although bare in mind that most americans HIGHLY oppose our leaders policies. We have just become powerless and voiceless due to their power grabs and passages of amendments to laws which grant them total unaccountability.

www.cbc.ca
(visit the link for the full news article)

Who gave America's hat permission to speak?

Bad hat! No treat!.

Just kidding. It saddens me that our perhaps closest friends and allies to the north to see us in such an embarassing state of affairs right now.

However, it's important to note that this headline on ATS is largely taken out of context from the article itself. The entire point of the article is that Canadians feel the future direction of the United States is so important, that many of them would rather trade their Canadian PM vote to be able to vote in the U.S. election (a priviledge that far too many of our own citizenry take for granted and waste by not voting ).

It's also important to note the context of the recent concern over the current direction of the United States.

He said the overall opinion of the United States was much higher in surveys done in the 1980s, but that opinion started to drop in 2001, hitting an all-time low in 2006.

Now, I can't imagine what, or more precisely, WHO, could have caused such a massive drop of U.S. face in the eyes of the world... I'm just wracking my brain here to come up with something... Anyone have any idea what might have happened during this timeframe? Anyone?

Until this mystery is solved, though, I think that it's fair to note that we are undergoing an historic change in U.S. politics, the likes of which have never even been seen before in this country. That should bring some measure of comfort to our Canadian friends.

Wow only 52%!!! I think that's more telling than anything else.

I think if you make the same poll in the U.S. you would get a higher number right now.

No one bother to do any back checking on the history of "Canada's World" and their little group? And the group who funds them? And the group who actually performed this "survey"? Thought not. Hilarious. It's why I posted this on politics... it stays longer. I was just waitin' for the bobber. Easier to just sit back and watch US-symps react. LOL. Rock in a paper bag on a cycle trail. The USA is entertaining in many ways.

Where I live... the numbers shall we say... are little more absolute and there isn't any survey required despite what any Canadian on ATS may say. None are needed. LOL. Priceless.

Vic

[edit on 5-2-2008 by V Kaminski]

Wait.... who's Canada?

JK - but I'll agree that 52% is very low with respect to america itself. I would guess a poll here would be WAY higher.

reply to post by SolPower


Hey but it's Super Tuesday, let see what happens. Might be a turning point. For the Americans and the rest of the world. Might not, let's wait and see.

Originally posted by V Kaminski
No one bother to do any back checking on the history of "Canada's World" and their little group? And the group who funds them? And the group who actually performed this "survey"? Thought not. Hilarious. It's why I posted this on politics... it stays longer. I was just waitin' for the bobber. Easier to just sit back and watch US-symps react. LOL. Rock in a paper bag on a cycle trail. The USA is entertaining in many ways.

Where I live... the numbers shall we say... are little more absolute and there isn't any survey required despite what any Canadian on ATS may say. None are needed. LOL. Priceless.

Vic

Vic no matter how biased this survey is (or who funded it), your mental survey of people you interact with is no more accurate, and in fact I would argue less accurate.

Sure some places are very anti-US. In Vancouver, for example, I would argue the rate would be more around 70 or 80 percent. At the same time I would argue the expected rate to be lower in places like the BC interior, where more than half of local industry is dedicated to supplying America with resources.

Regardless of what Canadians think, I don't you you (or anyone else) can claim to speak for them all. I assume you don't roll with your local conservative club, you don't drink cognac and smoke cigars with your local business men, you don't read the Western Standard (RIP ), you don't eagerly await the next Fraser Institute Study, you hate Ezra Levant, etc. That doesn't give you any right to suppress the fact that this supposed 48% of Canadians exist, just because more than 50% of the people you interact with in your day to day life feel the US is a negative force.

You called out the funders of this study as right wing biased if I am to understand correctly? Here is the list of sponsors:

The poll mentioned in this story was conducted on behalf of the Simons Foundation, the CBC, the Environics Institute, the Globe and Mail and Le Devoir. The story did not originally list the sponsors of the poll.

Link

OK So Simons Foundation, a political think tank, I will have to further research them to garner an opinion, sorry.
Next, the CBC. Isn't the CBC considered a more leftist Canadian news network?
Environics? A group dedicated to political polls. Once again will have to research more.
Globe and Mail? Definitely a left leaning paper.
Le Devoir? A French paper who staff has produced several high ranking provincial liberal party members and candidates.

I do not see how this is right biased study. Unless you are indicating that these specific media outlets and think tanks are promoting the US, regardless of their specific political affiliations? Where did you get "Canadas World" from, and what does it mean / represent?

As for this,

the numbers shall we say... are little more absolute and there isn't any survey required despite what any Canadian on ATS may say.

You sir have no right deny the voice of any other Canadian who wishes to make it heard, whether they agree with you or not.

So let me get this straight -- 48% of Canadians think that the USA is a positive force in the world?

That is striking. I am not sure we could muster that percentage here in the USA. But I guess it makes sense, given that Canadians are totally at the mercy of the USA in every possible way.

I would like to see the actual poll questions, but of course those would be too difficult to publish in this story, eh? It would require a hyperlink somewhere, and space is very tight on the internet these days.

EDIT: I note in the article, 49% of those Canadians surveyed indicate that Canada is a negative force in the world as well.



[edit on 5-2-2008 by Buck Division]

reply to post by Buck Division


The results of the study can be found here

And once more to Vic, there appears to be an extended list of project collaborators (with an incredible diversity of organizations) here. And Funders here

I suspect the other 48% of Canadians are here in the U.S. snowbirding....

A joke I heard some while ago: "A new poll says that 53% of Mexicans would move to the U.S. The other 47% are already here!"

[edit on 5-2-2008 by ItsHumanNature]

Originally posted by V Kaminski
Rock in a paper bag on a cycle trail. The USA is entertaining in many ways.

Precisely where are you from V?

I ask, because here in the USA, if we found a rock in a paper back on a cycle trail, we would generally be inclined to remove it, before someone got hurt. Some of us (a very few) might sit back and gloat as someone hurt themselves, but that would usually be frowned upon. Here. In the USA.

Your comment would be a lot funnier to me if I hadn't once broken my wrist because I hit a rock in a paper back on a cycle trail. (It healed quite nicely, thanks.)

Originally posted by Buck Division

Originally posted by V Kaminski
Rock in a paper bag on a cycle trail. The USA is entertaining in many ways.

Precisely where are you from V?

I ask, because here in the USA, if we found a rock in a paper back on a cycle trail, we would generally be inclined to remove it, before someone got hurt. Some of us (a very few) might sit back and gloat as someone hurt themselves, but that would usually be frowned upon. Here. In the USA.

Your comment would be a lot funnier to me if I hadn't once broken my wrist because I hit a rock in a paper back on a cycle trail. (It healed quite nicely, thanks.)

Can someone fill me in on this whole rock bag thing? Is the rock supposed to fall out of the paper bag because the trail is bumpy? Or is the bag on the trail? What do the bag and the rock and the trail represent?

I naively tried to google it thinking it was an old saying or phrase, but all I got were a few peoples journals about drinking rolling rock in a bag.

And you hit a rock under a paper back? Like a book? On a trail? While you were biking? Did you have a rock in a bag on you? Was it on Rockbag trail by any chance, because if it was, I think I'm on to something (Why yes, I did mean Rockbag trail Google!).

EDIT To Say:

Originally posted by ItsHumanNature
I suspect the other 48% of Canadians are here in the U.S. snowbirding....

That is hilarious!!! If they only poll phone numbers in Canada, I bet the poll digits swing with the seasons like long johns on a clothes line swing in a tornado.

[edit on 5-2-2008 by WuTang]

reply to post by WuTang


When I was 12 or 13 some friends and I were having some fun on a snowday from school, plunking cars with snowbals etc. A car full of Highschollers kept coming by messing with us, throing out snowballs etc. We began to put snowballs in the road, and these guys would roar by and smash them. Great fun. But then of course somebody had the great idea of rolling a big chunk of firewood into a snowball.... The car came around the block and smashed into it, lodging the huge chunk of wood under their car. Speed records were set as we ran for our lives , sides cramping from laughter, from the teenagers that would certainly have beaten us to a pulp. This is the "rock in the bag" he is talking about....

reply to post by ItsHumanNature


So a Rock in a paper bag is a trap to hurt someone/damage something. OK. So now i understand the saying. In Vics comparison, what is the "rock bag", who is the victim, and who is the trap setter. Am I missing anything? Figurative language is confusing when it lacks context.

As a Canadian myself, answering such polling data would be very difficult.

The USA of the Constitution and values as espoused by Ron Paul is a nation that I think is a positive force in the world.

The USA of George W. Bush, John McCain, Bob Dole, David Rockefeller, Bill Gates etc... is the greatest negative force in the world right now.

So how does one vote when the USA has become schizophrenic with the "enemies of humanity" running the show but vast numbers of the citizenry being the salt of the earth?

I love the U.S. Constitution and countless US Americans I know (including my own grandchildren and great-grandchildren!). However, I detest everything that has to do with the Bush-Clinton mafia syndicate, and that vile stain extends far and wide over the USA as well as the world.

Speaking as a Canadian living in BC, a study like that is hardly surprising, but what it reflects without saying is our deep mistrust of our own Prime Minister, because he seems to be following Bush's lead. Secrecy, heavy-handedness, a hidden agenda and a religious bent are qualities that we are not accustomed to in our leaders, and there is a palpable fear that we are beginning to resemble our neighbours to the south. Canada's pants to the hat.....

Originally posted by ItsHumanNature
I suspect the other 48% of Canadians are here in the U.S. snowbirding....

A joke I heard some while ago: "A new poll says that 53% of Mexicans would move to the U.S. The other 47% are already here!"

[edit on 5-2-2008 by ItsHumanNature]

That's like the one that says that Mexico is cancelling their participation in the next summer Olympic games. Seems that every Mexican that can run, jump, or swim is already here.

About this poll. Not even considering the possible (anti-American?) agenda of the group that commissioned the poll, so what? Opinions change like the wind. IF it really mattered, it's also close enough to 50-50 and probably within the statistical error margin - which makes it basically meaningless.

*Yawn* Some canadians think the U.S. is not a positive force. *Yawn*

Maybe we should take a poll in the U.S. to see how many people think canada is even relevant - to anything. Wonder what those numbers would say? I'm guessing a lot of Americans would say canada was relevant just to be nice ...


[edit on 2/5/2008 by centurion1211]

Originally posted by WuTang
reply to post by ItsHumanNature

 

So a Rock in a paper bag is a trap to hurt someone/damage something. OK. So now i understand the saying.

If you are understanding this, then you are doing better than me.

I don't get the post by V (or Vic) at all. Is it just me?

What is a bobber? What is he talking about that HE posted this (on politics) when it was posted by DimensionalDetective? What is a "US-symps" and why is it easier to watch them react? Where he lives the numbers are more absolute? What does that mean?

I don't get it. Perhaps it is happy hour, wherever he is.

(Feel free to jump in Vic. I'm confused.)

reply to post by centurion1211


Maybe we should take a poll in the U.S. to see how many people think canada is even relevant - to anything. Wonder what those numbers would say?

Well there is an expression up here: "When the US sneezes, we catch a cold." It isn't quite as true as it used to be, but our economies are very closely linked, meaning you buy a lot of our stuff. Right now your economy is so crap that your dollar doesn't allow you to buy as much of our stuff. You display typical yankee thinking, ie, who cares about everyone else, which is what got you in the trouble you're in in the first place. Y'all may not care what everyone else thinks, but right now you're too broke to notice that everyone else is affected. Soooo, that's one of the reasons why we see you in an unfavourable light. As to our relevance, without our resources, your economy would be even worse. Where do you think the wood for those 2 million surplus houses came from?