Majority (54%) of Canadians Do Not Approve of Sending Canadian Troops If the United States Takes Military Action To Overthrow Iraq President Saddam Hussein

Toronto, ONTARIO - With recent announcements by the Bush Administration that they are considering military action to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the latest Ipsos-Reid/CTV/Globe and Mail poll released tonight indicates that a majority (54%) of Canadians do not approve of sending Canadian troops to support a U.S. military action towards Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein. This compares to just over four in ten (44%) who would agree with such a move to support our American allies.

• Regionally, the highest level of disagreement with this idea is found among those in Quebec (62%) and British Columbia (58%), followed by residents of Saskatchewan/Manitoba (50%), Ontario (50%), and Alberta (48%), while those in Atlantic Canada (45%) are least likely to disagree.
• Older (61%) Canadians are more likely than middle aged (54%) or younger (48%) Canadians to disagree with sending troops to Iraq in support of a US military action.
• Women (54%) and men (53%) are equally as likely to express this view.

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/CTV/Globe and Mail poll conducted between August 27th and August 29th, 2002. 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.

To view the complete release and tables, please open the attached PDF files.

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For more information on this news release, please contact:

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