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.

 

Brent Patterson, Director of Campaigns and Communications, Council of Canadians
www.canadians.org

 

 

brentprofile11-1 (1)

Brent Patterson

Brent Patterson is a political activist, writer and the executive director of Peace Brigades International-Canada. He lives in Ottawa on the traditional, unceded and unsurrendered territories of the Algonquin...