As Canadian War Casualties Mount, Support For Afghanistan Mission Sinks

Toronto, ON - As more and more fallen Canadian soldiers are brought home from the battlegrounds in Afghanistan, a new Ipsos Reid survey conducted on behalf of CanWest/Global reports support for Canada's military mission in Afghanistan has sunk over the past few months.

Currently, just under half of Canadians (47%) support the "use of Canada's troops for security and combat efforts against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan"- a drop of 10 points since mid-May. More specifically, this drop has particularly affected the proportion who "strongly support" the mission - down to 17% from 29% at this question's last sounding. Forty-nine (+3 points) oppose our troops' combat operations in Afghanistan (30% "strongly oppose").

Further, more Canadians (52%) are now of the opinion that "Canadian troops should not be deployed in Afghanistan and they should be brought home as soon as possible" (up 6 points from late March) than feel "Canadian troops are performing a vital mission in Afghanistan and they should stay as long as it takes for them to succeed" (41%, down 9 points from March 23rd and down 11 points from March 3rd). Seven percent of Canadians say they "don't know".

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted for CanWest News Service/Global News and fielded from July 25th to July 27th, 2006. For this survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1000 adult Canadians was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the aggregate results are considered accurate to within 1773.1 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 each sub-grouping 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 Census data.

Support For Troops In Afghanistan Sinks To Minority Territory...

Today, just under half of Canadians (47%) support the "use of Canada's troops for security and combat efforts against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan"- a drop of 10 points since mid-May. More specifically, this drop has particularly affected the proportion who "strongly support" the mission - down to 17% from 29% at this questions last sounding.

Forty-nine (+3 points) oppose our troop's combat operations in Afghanistan (30% "strongly oppose").

And More Now Feel Troops Should Be Brought Home As Soon As Possible (52%) Rather Than Stay In Afghanistan (41%)...

Fifty-two percent of Canadians are now of the opinion that "Canadian troops should not be deployed in Afghanistan and they should be brought home as soon as possible" (up 6 points from late March) versus just 41% who feel "Canadian troops are performing a vital mission in Afghanistan and they should stay as long as it takes for them to succeed" (down 9 points from March 23 and down 11 points from March 3). Seven percent of Canadians say they "don't know".

• Nearly two-thirds of the residents of Quebec (66%) feel that the troops should be brought home as soon as possible -the largest proportion in the country, followed by those in Atlantic Canada (57%) and British Columbia.
• Albertans (60%) are the most likely to feel the troops should say as long as it takes for them to be successful.

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]

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