(Canada) Majority supports Israel

CanWest News Service via National Post ^ | 2006-07-25 | Mike De Souza

[Clive]

Almost two in three Canadians believe Israel's military action in Lebanon is justified, a new poll has revealed.

The survey, conducted online by Ipsos Reid for CanWest News Service and Global National, found 64% of Canadians believed Israel's action is either somewhat or completely justified.

Fifty-seven per cent of Quebecers believed the Israeli response is "not at all justified."

When asked which side should compromise in order to secure a ceasefire, 63% of Canadians said it was "those who kidnapped the Israeli soldiers," while 53% of Quebecers said it was the Israeli government.

The belief that the kidnappers should compromise is strongest in British Columbia (78%), Saskatchewan/Manitoba (74%), Alberta (67%) and Ontario (65%).

Israel launched a massive air and artillery bombardment of Lebanon two weeks ago after Hezbollah guerrillas abducted two Israeli soldiers from a border outpost. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has supported Israel's action, calling its response to the abduction and subsequent Hezbollah rocket attacks "measured."

"The only issue, really, is the stark divide between the two areas of the country, where Quebec -- and sometimes Atlantic Canada but mainly Quebec -- is at odds with the views of the majority of other Canadians," said John Wright, senior vice-president at Ipsos Reid.

"When you look across the country, Mr. Harper has good support in every region on almost every measure of both foreign policy and his approach to this matter, except in the province of Quebec, where it tilts clearly to an Israeli compromise," Mr. Wright said.

Results from the same poll released on Sunday found similar differences in opinion between Quebec and the rest of Canada on questions about Canada's position on the Middle East conflict.

Those results said residents of Quebec (62%) are the most likely to feel the minority Conservative government's position is decidedly too pro-Israel. In British Columbia and Alberta, only four in 10 felt that way.

Residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba (58%) are the most likely to feel the minority Conservative government's posture is fair, balanced and appropriate, followed by a little more than 50% everywhere else except Quebec (27%) and the Atlantic region (36%).

There are about 50,000 people of Lebanese origin in Quebec, with Montreal being the home to about a third of all Lebanese-Canadians. Quebecers are also more likely to oppose having the Canadian Forces join a proposed international peacekeeping force along the Lebanese-Israeli border. While 56% of Canadians overall support the idea, 49% of Quebec respondents are against it.

"People in Quebec are following [the conflict] much more closely than other people in the country," Mr. Wright said. "They just, on all measures, have a contrary view on what Canada's position should be, what its response should be, and ... in terms of the Israeli government."

While the Conservatives have high hopes of turning their minority government into a majority by winning more Quebec seats in the next election, Mr. Wright said Mr. Harper could still shift public opinion depending on how he responds to the conflict.

But even if many people disapprove of his foreign policy on the Middle East and Afghanistan, he said the Conservatives still have room to gain some ground.

"This is a country where you can have 57% of the people voting against you and still win a massive majority," Mr. Wright said.

"If six in 10 are not happy with your position, but four in 10 are, any politician who scores 40% in the province of Quebec is going to be pretty well off."

Asked about the appropriateness of the Conservative government's position on the Middle East hostilities, poll respondents were evenly split.

Ipsos Reid said 45% agreed Mr. Harper's position is "fair and balanced and completely appropriate," while 44% said it is "decidedly too pro-Israel and is not appropriate." Eleven per cent said the Prime Minister has not supported Israel strongly enough.

The poll surveyed 1,023 Canadians on July 20. It is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

[Clive]

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[Pro-Bush]

Pleasant surprise.

[mainepatsfan]

So the further east one goes in Canada the bluer it gets.

[JLAGRAYFOX]

Amazing, we see no polls at all in the USA on this subject. The war has been in progress for two weeks, and not a word from the USA pollsters. Must mean they don't like what they are seeing!!! The Democrat, Liberal MSM are not happy!!!

[mainepatsfan]

I thought I saw CNN had one that showed big support for Israel.

[Khurkris]

Pleasantly surprising. Had you not posted this I'm certain this would vanish into obscurity.

[Clive]

Actually, the colours are reversed.

The US media got the colours screwed up in their election coverage graphics.

In Canada, blue is the Tory colour and red is the Grit colour.

And I believe that until we got that "blue state - red state" thing, universally red signified political left and blue signified political right.

But you are right, generally west of the Lakehead tends to be more conservative, with the exception of Vancouver.

If analysed on a riding basis instead of a provincial basis, the real dichotomy is revealed to be not regional but rather urban agains exurban and rural, and even the urban tends to show differences between large metropolitan areas and smaller cities.

I think that this is the same as in the US. Our centre tends to be to the left of the US because we are more urbanized than is the US. A greater percentage of our populations are concentrated in large cities such as Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto.

Quebec is a special case. The francophones do not have as broad an access to divergent media coverage as do the anglophones and so are influenced to a greater degree by Mother Corp than the rest of us.

[mainepatsfan]

Is the reason the Atlantic provinces lean left because of their proximity to Quebec?

[Clive]

More likely, their proximity to New England.

[fanfan]

Canada ping.

Please send me a FReepmail to get on or off this Canada ping list.

[mainepatsfan]

LOL. That doesn't help I'm sure.

[backhoe]

Allow me to "lift" ( is it plagiarism when you steal yourself? ) something I just posted on Free Dominion:

CultureWarrior wrote:

This poll is yet another example of the MSM making up the news. When you read the details you clearly realize that 56% of Canadians are onside with Harper's position (relative to the pro-terrorist position of the other parties). Yet the title indicates its split right down the middle.

CultureWarrior, in the States, polls are used to set agendas, drive the national conversation in a desired direction, and spin things a certain way.

Typically, a poll will be made ( first story ) then an article will be written about the poll ( second story ), then another poll commissioned about reactions to the story about the poll ( third story ). If the subject seems to have momentum, yet another story will be written about the first three...
It's a closed-cycle feedback loop.

Mostly so the chattering heads of the Drive-By Media have something to yak about among themselves.
_________________
( Just an Old Keyboard Cowboy, Ridin'' the Trakball into the Sunset...)

[fanfan]

You're so right, Backhoe.

[backhoe]

I first realized polls were being used to manipulate people back in the mid-nineteen sixties.

NBC news came out with a poll claiming the majority of Americans favored more gun control laws... now that was in an era when many prominent people on the Left ( Late Vice President Hubert Humphrey comes to mind ) were vocal supporters of the Second Amendment.

My area was 80% Democrat back then, and you couldn't find a soul who agreed with that poll- so where did they get the numbers?

By a strange coincidence, not long after this NBC ran a "special" ( with no sponsors, interestingly enough, so you could not boycott them ) that started out with a couple of young men blasting their neighbor's tractor to pieces with a 20mm Lahti anti-tank cannon ( just the ticket for duck hunting! ), and asking rhetorically, "do we need more gun control?" Next thing you know, there's a big hue & cry ( on TV ) to pass the "Gun Control Act of 1968..."

I put 2 & 2 together, and haven't believed them since.

[Squawk 8888]

Is the reason the Atlantic provinces lean left because of their proximity to Quebec?

No, it's because the Liberal party has spent half a century cultivating a dependence on government largesse. Until my father's generation, maritimers who wanted to improve their lot would move west (in my dad's case to Montréal and later Toronto), but now they stay home, work temporary government-created "jobs" for a couple of months and spend the rest of the year collecting unemployment benefits. It's quite sad to witness the way handouts have destroyed the local culture.

[GMMAC]

"Fifty-seven per cent of Quebecers believed the Israeli response is "not at all justified.""

There's a dirty little secret which went on under the Liberals & which - hopefully one day soon - the Harper government's going to have to address:

All the while that the CRTC (the federal broadcasting regulatory body)was ramming so-called "Canadian content" (read: the CBC's left-wing & anti-American crap) up the kiesters of English speakers, it turned an intentionally blind eye to what goes on en Francaise in Quebec where, in addition to the CBC's Marxist garbage, listeners/viewers receive virtually non-stop propaganda & indoctrination which originates from France !!!

Given as much, it's pretty easy to see why opinion pollsters never have any trouble recording considerable higher levels of both anti U.S. & anti Israeli sentiments au la belle Province than in the rest (the English speaking parts) of Canada.

In fairness to the average Quebecois, this attempted Franco-mind-control campaign only seems to go so deep and many are quite capable of rejecting it (such as by voting Conservative) when its alternative(s) are even anything close to equally presented.