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Eight In Ten Canadians (82%): Bush No Friend Of Canada, Doesn't Really Know Canadian Issues

But Canadians Split over Future Relationship between the Two Countries: More Canadians (39%) Believe Canada's Relationship with the U.S. Should Be Closer Than Farther Apart (27%) While One-Third (32%) Say It Should Remain the Same

Toronto, ON - As Prime Minister Paul Martin visits President George W. Bush in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, a new Ipsos-Reid/CTV/The Globe and Mail survey released today shows Canadians have a pretty clear view of the President: eight in ten Canadians (82%) believe that he "is not necessarily a friend of Canada and doesn't really know anything when it comes to Canadian issues" with only 14% who believe the contrary, that he "is a friend of Canada and really knows and understands Canadian issues".

But while Canadians may have a strong consensus on the American President, they are less clear in terms of where they think the relationship between Canada and the U.S. should be headed. The survey found Canadians split: four in ten (39%) believe Canada should "have closer, more friendly ties with the U.S.", another 27% are at the opposite end of that viewpoint and would like to see Canada "have a more distant, more independent relationship with the U.S." and almost as many (32%) prefer the status quo and think that Canada should "not change the relationship as it exists at all".

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/CTV/The Globe and Mail poll conducted between April 27th and 28th, 2004. For the telephone survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 946 adult Canadians was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 177 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.

Eight In Ten Canadians (82%) Believe That U.S. President George Bush Is Not Necessarily A Friend of Canada And Doesn't Really Know Anything When It Comes To Canadian Issues...

Eight in ten Canadians (82%) agree with the statement "that U.S. President George Bush is not necessarily a friend of Canada and doesn't really know anything when it comes to Canadian issues", in comparison to 14% who agree with the statement that "President George Bush is a friend of Canada and really knows and understands Canadian issues". The remaining 4% of Canadians "don't know".

  • Residents of British Columbia (88%) are the most inclined to think that President Bush is not necessarily a friend of Canada, followed by residents of Quebec (84%), Atlantic Canada (82%), Alberta (81%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (81%), and Ontario (79%).
  • Residents of Saskatchewan/Manitoba (19%) are the most apt to think that President Bush is a friend of Canada, followed by residents of Ontario (17%), Alberta (16%), British Columbia (11%), Quebec (10%), and Atlantic Canada (8%).

But Canadians Split And Have No Clear Consensus About How Canada Should Develop Its Future Relationship With U.S....

There is not a clear consensus among Canadians as to how they think Canada should try to develop its future relationship with the U.S. Four in ten Canadians (39%) believe Canada should "have closer, more friendly ties with the U.S.", 32% believe Canada should "not change the relationship as it exists at all", and 27% believe Canada should "have a more distant, more independent relationship with the U.S." The remaining 3% of Canadians "don't know".

  • Support for a closer more friendly relationship with the U.S. is highest in Atlantic Canada (55%), followed by Alberta (45%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (44%), Ontario (39%), Quebec (33%), and British Columbia (32%).
  • Men are more likely than women to desire closer more friendly Canada-U.S. relations (43% vs. 35%)
  • Older Canadians aged 55+ are the more likely than those aged under 55 to support a closer, more friendly relationship with the US (48% vs. 35%).
  • Support for a more distant independent relationship with the U.S. is highest in British Columbia (34%), followed by Quebec (33%), Alberta (27%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (23%), Ontario (23%), and Atlantic Canada (18%).
  • Younger Canadians aged 34 and under are more likely than those aged 35 and over to support a more distant, more independent relationship with the U.S. (34% vs. 24%)
  • Support for not changing the relationship is highest in Ontario (36%), followed by British Columbia (32%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (30%), Quebec (30%), Alberta (27%) and Atlantic Canada (24%).

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

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