George W. Bush

Toronto, ON - As the United States faces accusations from the International community of being "supernationalist" in eschewing multilateral treaties, and amid increasing attention to the nation's defence shield initiative, a new CTV/Globe and Mail poll conducted by Ipsos-Reid reveals that more than a third (36%) of Canadians say U.S. President George Bush's actions and decisions on the international stage have made the world "less safe". This comes as President Bush heads back to the heartland for a month long "working" vacation.

Four in ten (42%) Canadians say that George W. Bush's decisions and actions on the international stage have had "no effect" on the safety of the world today. Meanwhile, just 9 percent say the U.S. President's actions and decisions internationally have made the world "more safe", and 13 percent of Canadians say they "don't know".

• Canadians from Quebec (42%) are most likely to say Bush's actions and decisions on the international stage have made the world "less safe", followed by BC (39%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (37%) and Ontario (35%). Albertans (29%) and Atlantic Canadians (25%) are least likely to say the world is "less safe" since President Bush took office.
• Older Canadians (42% of 55+) are more likely than younger ones (37% of 35 to 54 and 32% of 18 to 34) to say Bush's actions and decisions internationally have made the world "less safe".
• University graduates (49%) are more likely to say the world is "less safe" compared to those with some post-secondary education (33%), high school graduates (27%), and those with less than a high school education (29%).

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/CTV/Globe and Mail poll conducted between July 31st, 2001 and August 2nd, 2001. The poll is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians. 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 statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 1996 Census data.

For more information on this news release, please contact:

John Wright
Senior Vice President
Public Affairs
Ipsos-Reid
(416) 324-2900