Bringing Canadians Home: The Evacuation From Lebanon, Part I

Toronto, ON - Most Canadians give the Harper government a good passing grade when it comes to how they have reacted to and conducted the evacuation of Canadian citizens from Lebanon, according to a new Ipsos Reid survey undertaken on behalf of CanWest Global.

A majority of Canadians (66%) would describe their government's response to the situation so far as either being "fairly responsive and acceptable" (58%) or "extraordinarily well managed and conducted" (8%). Only one-third (34%) feel their response has been "slow and unacceptable" (this sentiment is particularly strong among residents of Quebec).

When it comes to the actual evacuation, most Canadians are of the opinion that "the government is absolutely obligated to get these Canadians out of this conflict area as soon as possible regardless of the risk or cost" (55%). However, a fairly sizable minority (45%) feel "the government can only do so much and it is up these individual Canadians to bear most of the responsibility in figuring out how to get out of the area".

In a broader context, while a majority (78%) agree that every citizen has a right to be evacuated by their government in a situation such as this, most feel that individuals should be held accountable for at least some of the costs:

• 61% agree "those evacuated should be made to pay a minimum amount of money within three months of their re-entry into Canada" to reimburse taxpayers; and
• 58% disagree that "the costs of evacuating Canadian citizens out of dangerous areas should come at the taxpayers expense as opposed to those individuals who are being evacuated".

Further, 56% agree that "Canadian citizens who are now being evacuated from Lebanon have been unreasonable in their demands that their government get them out of that war zone quicker and without cost".

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted on the evening of July 20th. 2006 for CanWest/ Global News. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1023 adult Canadians were interviewed via an on-line survey. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within +/-3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, 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. These data were weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.

Please open the attached PDF to view the factum and detailed tables.

For more information on this news release, please contact:
John Wright
Senior Vice President
Ipsos Reid Public Affairs
(416) 324-2900
[email protected]

Ipsos Reid
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