Canadians like U.S. but not its President (Globe and Mail)

[Screaming Lord Byron]

I know I've seen something about this in GD, but this is the original news story.

http://www.globeandmail.ca/servlet/story/RTGAM.20040429.wpoll0429/BNStory/Front/

As Prime Minister Paul Martin prepares for his meeting today with George W. Bush, a new poll suggests Canadians believe the U.S. President neither likes nor understands this country.

Eight out of 10 people surveyed this week by Ipsos-Reid for The Globe and Mail and CTV said they don't think Mr. Bush is necessarily a friend of Canada or knows anything about Canadian issues.

“There is a significant sense that George Bush the President, not Americans, is out of touch and doesn't view us as a friend,” said John Wright, senior vice-president of public affairs for the pollster. That's a sentiment that has been charted consistently over the three years that Mr. Bush has been in office.

[Minstrel Boy]

1. Just what I'd expect to see from that leftist rag!

/sarcasm off.

This is all O'Reilly needs to hear. He'll be calling for muskets at the border.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

2. If O'Reilly wants to invade, I'll expect him at the head of the convoy.

Hockey Sticks at Dawn, Gentlemen!

[achtung_circus]

3. It's summer, lacrosse racket time, Byron n/t

[Screaming Lord Byron]

6. OK. But can we bring the Curling Stones? Please?

[achtung_circus]

8. I blame the Scots

for much of the world's weirdness.

In addition to curling they have given us those 2 other unexplainably (to me) popular sports, golf and tossing the caber.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

9. What can I say? We were bored.

Actually, Golf is a cruel hoax we have foisted on the world. It's not a real sport at all, y'know!
Anyway, you didn't mention Shinty. Field Hockey with a baseball, and you can raise the stick as high as you want.

[chenGOD]

13. NHL playoffs beg to differ with you...

Plus if they can play ice hockey in florida...well...you an see where I'm going with this.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

4. Interesting little fact here, Alberta-bashers...

(not that I blame you for bashing my Province, hell I'm usually at the front of the queue)
-16% of Albertans think Bush is a good friend of Canada. 17% of Ontarians do.
-81% of Albertans think Bush is not a friend of Canada. 79% of Ontarians do.
-Support for a closer relationship with the US is 10% higher in the Maritimes than Alberta. Less than 50% of Albertans want a closer relationship.
-Support for a more distant relationship with the US was 4% higher in Alberta than in Ontario.

[achtung_circus]

10. Alberta is an easy target for Easterners

And vice versa. However, we are more alike than we are different. I am a huge fan of the following:

Fire and Ice: The United States, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values
by Michael Adams (Penguin Canada)

Can Canada survive and prosper as a distinct society in an era of globalization and technological change, or are we drifting inevitably towards a greater political and philosophical alliance with the United States? Fire and Ice challenges the myth of inevitability and concludes, not only are our preconceptions incorrect, but that values in the two nations are actually diverging. Adams has written an outstanding book that addresses a critical issue underlying many current policy arguments.

Although we snipe at each other east and west I, who have spent roughly half my life in each, find no real inerest in becoming part of the American Dream other than among wing-nuts like Dave Rutherford and the Socail Credit double wing-nuts of the Crdston area.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

11. Alberta's a mixed-bag.

Obviously, in Calgary, we have a serious right-wing elite that is propped-up by the resource companies. The success of the Provincial Government is entirely due to oil funds. Were it not for that, they would have been turfed long ago. With the extraordinary amounts of oil money which covers their financial cack-handedness, Klein et al have been able to win near-perpetual power. After all, they can pay down the debt and supply bribes (like the last election's well-timed gas rebates) to an electorate that just wants an un-intrusive, low-key administration.
'Western Alienation' is also a major factor. The fact is, 90% (at least) of the electorate here has no concept of Left or Right. They just want to vote for the guys who bitch the most about Ottawa.
Combine these factors with a small but influential Christian Fundamentalist Right, and you get Alberta. Thankfully our demographics are changing over time, and when those wells run dry, we'll be just as liberal as any other province.

[Lisa]

20. like other Canadian urban areas, Calgary-Edmonton are more moderate

With a couple of major universities, plus an influx of young tech workers, there are plenty of liberals there and the number seems to be growing -- which should give the old resource elite a run for their money, I hope.

My officemate is from Calgary, and she is absolutely horrified by Bush (and the hard-core Reform types). And the older generation have some of that prairie progressive spirit left -- my relatives near Millet are Red Tories, if anything. Plus they aren't thrilled by the whole NAFTA thing -- they're suspicious of the neo-con corporate agenda.

Remember Joe Clark, leading that Gay Pride parade?

[Screaming Lord Byron]

21. Yeah, I was there at that parade.

Joe's a friend of the organizer, our candidate in Calgary South Centre. That may be interesting.

[Lisa]

23. Cool! I've always liked Joe.

I imagine he's rather shaken by the way things have gone over the past couple of years. It can't be easy for him. Also, I was very sorry that they couldn't have waited until Robert Stanfield passed away before doing their little merger. I am hoping that the news of his party's effective demise didn't contribute to his death.

[daleo]

31. Edmonton usually manages to elect a few non-Conservatives

Its political culture is quite different from the rest of the province, although there is still a healthy proportion of knee-jerk conservatives and the religious right.

[iverglas]

28. alberta blip

I'll betcha that once the "live beef" starts moving southward across the border again (Bush does so want this to happen "as soon as possible"), Alberta's opinion of him will rise a couple of percentage points.

Something was being advertised this week -- CBC? Newsworld? -- called "Western Alienation: is it time to get over it?" Did I miss it? The title alone did the job, I'd say.

Here we are:
http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/program/index.jsp?program=Western+Alienation%3A+Is+It+Time+To+Get+Over+It%3F

Western Alienation: Is It Time To Get Over It?

(Special) CBC Newsworld host David Gray moderates a CBC Radio and Television special public forum debate on the New West. Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan and former Reform Party leader Preston Manning will be on the panel. Together they and leading thinkers from the West will discuss moving beyond a sense of alienation, and explore what role, and what voice, the West should have in Confederation.

Well that's useful ... it doesn't say when it is/was on.

.

[TN al]

5. I don't think that Canadians are unique in that thought...

... I think the rest of the world and half of the Americans think the same way.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

7. Yeah, but it's good to see that our opinion of your President

doesn't impact our positive opinion of you.

[TN al]

12. Hey, I'm just an American...

...by an accident of birth. My dad was a hockey player and I was born in the winter. My younger sister was born in the summer, back in Canada. It seems more important to make that clear in the past 3+ years. However that same accident allows me to vote for John Kerry and do my part for world harmony in trying to get that bastard out.

[Iceburg]

25. Ok accident /tn-- who did he play for? does he have any rings?

[TN al]

29. He played when there were just 6 teams...

...belonged to Detroit but career minor leaguer. He did score 57 goals one year.

[progressivebydesign]

14. Like I needed a news flash to tell me that??

Umm.. it's the same way in EVERY country worldwide. Our president is a total phoney-ass dick. They can see right through him because the majority of people in other countries have not lost their ability to think for themselves, or even have a thought not influenced by television.

[NJmaverick]

15. Hey a lot of Americans feel the same way

Love our Country hate the evil dictator that is ruining the country.

[Just Me]

18. Yup, yup, yup. I don't like my president either. He sucks!!!! *eom*

[Ganja Ninja]

16. My local sports talk radio jock is P O'd.

because some Canadians have been booing our national anthem when the Lightning were playing in Montreal. He's a RW a-hole at a clear channel station naturally. It seems these bastards never are able to ask why. It wasn't always like this. Why are thing different now? Could it be the man he thinks is America's savior is at fault for poisoning our relationship with our closest neighbor?

[truthspeaker]

17. hey, me too!

[KansDem]

19. LOL

I know MANY Americans who like the US but not its President...

As well as Brits, French, Swiss, Belgians, etc... :)

(edited to add more nations)

[Mechatanketra]

22. They're kidding themselves.

As far as I can tell, about a third of the country is as much their enemy as Bush is, and another third is too stupid, corrupt, and/or callously indifferent to do anything about the first third.

Fortify the border, mapleleafs. You'll need it. :-(

[Iceburg]

26. We are patrolling the St. Lawrence Seaway as we speak

[yellowcanine]

24. "they don't think Mr. Bush is necessarily a friend of Canada or

knows anything about Canadian issues."

Hey what do those Canadians expect, eh? He doesn't know anything about U.S. issues, why should Canada be special?

[JoFerret]

27. 80% of canadians dislike Bush - Poll

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1541&e=8&u=/afp/canada_us_poll


Why only 80%?

[Iceburg]

30. Because we are polite and didn't want to humiliate the feller

[daleo]

32. 20% of the sample was drunk that day

The Leafs are in the playoffs.