Canadians' Views.More from the PEW Survey

I posted yesterday about a survey showing [among many other things] that a majority of Canadians is dissatisfied with the direction their country is taking. Here are some more results of the PEW survey about attitudes in Canada [thanks, again, to John Chilton for the pointer].

Image of the United States and Canada

• Favorable ratings for the U.S. continue to slip in Canada; 59% have a positive view of the U.S., down from 63% in 2003, and 72% in 2002.
• Favorable views of Americans have also declined. Two-thirds of Canadians (66%) have a positive view of Americans, compared with the 77% in 2003 and 78% in 2002.
• About three-quarters of Canadians associate Americans with the positive characteristics“inventive” (76%) and “hardworking” (77%), but just 42% say Americans are “honest.” Majorities of Canadians also associate the negative traits of “rude,” “violent” and “greedy” with Americans.
• U.S. attitudes toward Canada remain positive, with 76% of the American public holding a favorable view of Canada. This is up from 65% in 2003, yet not quite as high as it was in 2002 (83% favorable).

Canadian opinions of their own country

• Nearly all Canadians (94%) believe that their country is well-liked by other nations. This is the highest percentage among the 16 nations surveyed.
• Canadians are increasingly dissatisfied with the way things are going in their country. Fewer than half (45%) say they are satisfied with national conditions, down from 60% in 2003 and 56% in 2002.
• Canadians have strongly positive opinions of the impact of immigration; 77% say Asian immigrants are a good thing, and 78% say that about immigrants from Mexico and Latin America.

The Iraq War and U.S. Policies

• Eight-in-ten Canadians believe their government made the right decision not to use military force against Iraq. This is up significantly from 65% in 2003.
• A majority of Canadians believe the world is a more dangerous place as a result of the war in Iraq that removed Saddam Hussein from power; 37% believe it is safer. And, just 24% say Iraq will be more stable in the wake of the January elections there while a 61% majority thinks the situation in Iraq will not change much.
• Just 19% of Canadians feel the U.S. takes Canadian interests into account at least a fair amount when making foreign policy.
• A majority of Canadians (57%) now favor Canada taking a more independent approach from the U.S. to security and diplomatic affairs, up from 43% two years ago.
• Canadians, once among the strongest U.S. allies in the war on terror, are now about evenly split on the issue, with 47% opposing the U.S.- led effort and 45% in favor. That represents a significant reversal from May 2003, when more than two-thirds of Canadians backed the war on terror (68%).

Note that the survey is small-sample:

The Global Attitudes Project conducted telephone interviews with a random sample of 500 Canadians from May 6- 11, 2005. For results based on the total sample, one can say with 95% confidence that the error attributable to sampling is plus or minus 4 percentage points.