Interesting News

The National Post is apparently running a story about a poll conducted by the Department of National Defense in Ottawa. The results in the Post's article are interesting on their own:

A poll has found a great degree of Canadian affection for their armed forces -- and overwhelming support for more funding and better equipment for the troops, even if it means cuts elsewhere in the federal budget....

...44% believed that a decade of government cuts to the defence budget had hurt Canada's international reputation. According to 43%, the cuts have put the safety of soldiers at risk.

Of course, you can feel the Post's bias dripping from the type:

Most Canadians appeared to be clinging to the notion of their soldiers being used for humanitarian or peacekeeping missions rather than more aggressive "peace-making" roles, and preferred co-operation with the United Nations to working with the United States.

Those silly, limp-wristed Canadians. Wanting their soldiers to be used to save lives, absent a threat to national security. Given where the Post came down in the debate over Canadian participation in Iraq, we know what their idea of "aggressive 'peace-making'" is, and Canadians pretty roundly are opposed to that. Of course, so are most Americans now.

In any case, it's encouraging to see Canadians increasingly willing to spend big money on the military. The problem is actually electing politicians who will do this. Like health care, Canadians seem willing to say they support more military spending, but the military is never made an election issue - probably because that would be too American of us.

Which brings me to another wrinkle to this story, something the Post's web story doesn't mention but Chrisale from Murkyviews has posted:

Q: What do you think constitutes the greatest threat to Canadian National Security today.

The Answers were….

38% International Organized Crime

37% International Terrorists

37% US Foreign Policy.

Now, I'm not sure those numbers add up, unless the answers were non-exlcusive. But the idea that Canadians rank the US up there with terrorism and organized crime is interesting, to say the least. Like I said, the National Post doesn't mention this part of the poll, at all - gee, wonder why? Could reality be intruding on their little right-wing bubble?

Conservatives love to blame Liberals in government and liberals in the press for Canadian anti-american sentiment, but it's worth considering that a large minority of us seem to find the US damn scary for the moment.