An Angus Reid opinion poll released last week said that:
- 74 percent of Canadians say the summits at the end of this week are ‘not too important’ or ‘not important at all’
- 78 percent say the $1-billion-plus price tag for the summits is unjustified
Details on this poll are at http://www.visioncritical.com/2010/06/high-security-cost-for-g8-and-g20-summits-unjustified-for-most-canadians/.
Newspaper headlines have pointed to a Canadian Press-Decima poll released on the weekend, which seems to contradict the Angus Reid poll. This polls said that:
- 76 percent say the upcoming summits are either very or somewhat important
But if you look at it carefully, the Canadian Press-Decima poll tells us two things:
Canadians don’t expect real progress on important issues at these summits
- 66 percent say they expect “a little” progress at the G20 on global economy
- 63 percent said the same about maternal health at the G8 summit
Canadians who have heard about the costs of the summit, don’t believe they are worth it
- of the 70 percent who had heard about the cost of the summits, 61 percent said “they were too expensive to be worth it”
The specifics of the Canadian Press-Decima poll are at http://www.harrisdecima.ca/news/releases/201006/835-canadians-feel-global-meetings-are-important-question-cost.
A Council of Canadians on-line poll asks, “The G8 and G20 summits in Canada this month will cost more than $1.1 billion. Is this a good use of public money?”
- 92 percent say ‘no’ (375 people)
- 6 percent say ‘yes’ (24 people)
- 2 percent say ‘don’t know’ (10 people)
To vote on our on-line poll, go to www.canadians.org.
