The "Airbus Affair"

The Canadian public gives the federal Liberal government a "thumbs down" for its overall handling of the "Airbus Affair", but is satisfied that the out-of-court settlement with Brian Mulroney was the right thing to do. These findings emerged from a National Angus Reid/Southam News Poll conducted among a representative cross-section of 1,519 Canadian adults between January 21st and 27th, 1997. The highlights of the poll findings on the "Airbus Affair" include:

• In terms of the public's overall views of the federal government's handling of the whole "Airbus Affair", two in three (68%) of the Canadians polled said they had done a "poor" (36%) or "very poor" (32%) job, compared to one in four (27%) who were satisfied that the federal government had done a good job on this whole issue. (Only 3% said "very good".) Canadians from all walks of life are unimpressed with the federal Liberal government's handling of the "Airbus Affair".
• Canadians are satisfied that the government has done the "right thing" in reaching this out-of-court settlement with Brian Mulroney (the overall elements of the settlement were described in the introduction to these questions): 58 percent of those surveyed took this view versus 35 percent who said the government has done the "wrong thing" in reaching this settlement with Mr. Mulroney.

This National Angus Reid/Southam News Poll was conducted by telephone between January 21st and 27th, 1997 among a representative cross-section of 1,519 Canadian adults. The actual number of completed interviews in each region was as follows: B.C. - 202; Alberta - 151; Manitoba/Saskatchewan - 121; Ontario - 523; Quebec - 401; Atlantic - 121. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 1991 Census data. With a national sample of 1,519, one can say with 95 percent certainty that the results are within ±2.5 percentage points of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population.

For further information, contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice-President
Angus Reid Group
(416) 324-2900

Darrell Bricker
Senior Vice-President
Angus Reid Group
(613) 241-5802