Bush's Ottawa visit doesn't help popularity

By Editing Staff
December 14, 2004
A new national Ipsos-Reid/CTV/Globe and Mail survey shows that while President Bush's first official visit may have produced good strides in terms of rebuilding relations and good will between his administration and the Canadian government, these efforts did not improve his popularity among the Canadian public.

In the light of what they might have seen, read or heard about President's Bush visit, eight in ten Canadians (78%) say that Mr. Bush's visit had no impact on their opinion of the President, and a further 7% say their opinion of Mr. Bush has actually gotten "worse" after his visit. However, one in ten Canadians (10%) feel that they now have an improved impression of Mr. Bush after his visit to Canada. Overall, this represents a very small positive net score (+3).

Furthermore, most Canadians (55%) don't believe that President Bush's visit will have much an impact when it comes to resolving important outstanding US-Canada trade issues like exporting Canadian cattle to the United States, and a further 6% feel the visit might actually "make things worse". But one-third (34%) of Canadians have a more positive take on the visit and feel that it may "actually help get some issues solved".

These are the findings of an Ipsos-Reid/CTV/Globe and Mail poll conducted from December 3rd to December 6th, 2004. For the survey, a representative randomly selected sample of 1000 adult Canadians was interviewed by telephone. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within ±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 weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the 2001 Census data.

id President Bush's Visit Improve His Perception Among Canadians?

In the light of President Bush's recent visit to Canada, Canadians were asked whether based on what they had seen, read, or heard their opinion of Mr. Bush had gotten better, worse, or remained the same as before he visited Canada.

One in ten Canadians (10%) say that their opinion of Mr. Bush is now "better" than it was before his visit, while a similar percentage (7%) say their opinion is now "worse". This represents a very small net gain of +3. Meanwhile, a strong majority of Canadians (78%) say their opinion of Mr. Bush has not changed after his visit, and 5% "don't know" if their opinion has changed.

Those most likely to say their opinion of Mr. Bush is better are:
·Residents of Atlantic Canada (17%) and Saskatchewan/Manitoba (17%), followed by Alberta (14%), Ontario (10%), Quebec (6%), and British Columbia (6%); and
·Those aged 35 and older (13% vs. 6% among those aged 18-34).

When asked to think about the visit in terms of getting issues solved, like exporting Canadian cattle to the United States or other trade and border problems that affect Canada, more than half (55%) of Canadians say that this visit won't really have much or any effect on the resolution of these issues and 6% believe the visit might actually make things worse.

One-third of Canadians (34%) say they believe the visit will actually help get some of these issues solved. The remaining 5% of Canadians "don't know" if this visit will help to resolve these issues.

“Those most likely to say their opinion of Mr. Bush is better are:

·Residents of Atlantic Canada (17%) and Saskatchewan/Manitoba (17%), followed by Alberta (14%), Ontario (10%), Quebec (6%), and British Columbia (6%); and

·Those aged 35 and older (13% vs. 6% among those aged 18-34).”
·Residents of Ontario (44%) are the most likely to believe that this visit will help get some issues solved, followed by Saskatchewan/Manitoba (42%), Alberta (40%), Atlantic Canada (32%), British Columbia (27%), and Quebec (17%).
·Those aged 55 and over are the most likely to believe that this meeting will help resolve these issues (40% vs. 31% among those aged 18-54).
·Those with an annual household income of $60,000 or more are the most likely to believe this meeting will help resolve these issues (41% vs. 30% among those with an annual household income of $59,000 or less).


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