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Only 5 per cent of Canadians think foreign policy should be Washington-friendly, says poll

December 11, 2007
Posted by Brent Patterson

It was the 50th anniversary of former prime minister Lester B. Pearson's Nobel prize this week. Pearson is credited with inventing the idea of peacekeeping to solve international crises. To commemorate the event, the Globe and Mail and CTV commissioned a poll from the Strategic Counsel on the public perception of Canada's role in the world today.

As reported by the Globe, "a typical Canadian feels that the country's proudest moment was a decision not to go to war in Iraq, that its foreign policy is too heavily influenced by the United States, that we are fighting in Afghanistan mainly at the behest of Washington and that climate change and the rich-poor gap are a bigger threat to world security than terrorism or weapons of mass destruction."

This is "sharply at odds with the views of the United States, Canada's closest ally and economic partner," according to the article and, "They may also be a blow to the more muscular foreign policy of Prime Minister Stephen Harper."

Among the findings of the Globe/CTV poll:

• 36 per cent of Canadians feel that the biggest threat to the world today is climate change;
• 25 per cent feel that Canada's foreign policy was most influenced by Washington but only 5 per cent thought that was a good thing;
• 39 per cent said that Canadian foreign policy was less independent than it was 50 years ago;
• 37 per cent of Canadians said we're in Afghanistan "because the United States wants Canada there"; and
• 33 per cent said Ottawa's decision not to join the U.S. invasion of Iraq was our greatest achievement.

Given figures like that, it's not surprising that the Harper Conservatives, intent on keeping Bush happy at any cost, are stuck in minority territory.