52% Of Canadians Reject NMD

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-11-04 08:10pm

OTTAWA - A new survey suggests 52 per cent of Canadians don't want Prime Minister Paul Martin to sign on to the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defence System.

Washington is already moving ahead on the plan. It has placed 10 of the land-based missiles in western states, poised to shoot down incoming threats to the United States.

* INDEPTH: Missile defence system

On this side of the border, Martin has repeatedly said Canada must do its part in defending North America as long as there's a guarantee it won't lead to putting weapons in space.

A poll released Thursday suggests a decision to join the American system poses a major political risk for Martin's minority government, however.

The poll, conducted by the Centre for Research and Information on Canada and called "Portraits of Canada," questioned more than 3,000 people between mid-September and mid-October.

It showed more than half of Canadians don't want any part of the plan, though 46 per cent support this country's involvement.

Opposition to the plan was strongest among people polled in Quebec. In the province where Martin's Liberals lost more than a dozen seats in the June 28 election, 65 per cent of those surveyed said they oppose Canada joining the missile defence system.

Support for the system is strongest in Newfoundland and Labrador (66 per cent) and in Alberta (54 per cent).

More passion among those opposed

Donna Dasko is the vice-president of the polling firm Environics, which conducted the survey in English Canada.

She said the key finding was that people who oppose missile defence feel much more strongly about the issue than those who support it.

"The passion is on the side of not participating. That's where the voices are going to be strongest in saying, 'This country shouldn't be doing this.'"

Members of the Liberal caucus are also deeply divided over whether Canada should join in the missile defence system.

Defence Minister Bill Graham said he has long thought the government needs to do a better job of explaining what's at stake.

"This is an issue of some complexity, but very important to our U.S. relations," he said.

The poll also found that most Canadians want good relations with the United States, but are increasingly wary of getting too close to their southern neighbour.

That concern was fuelled by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq 19 months ago, as well as the divisive presidential election campaign that returned George W. Bush to the White House this week.

The survey is considered accurate to within 1.7 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

It doesn't really matter whether the Canadian Public supports NMD or not. We have the NORAD treaty to honour. And I believe NMD falls under that. Besides it'll bring all kinds of jobs to Canada, especially if we let them base missiles on our soil.

brianeyci · Post by **brianeyci** » 2004-11-04 08:16pm

Just as long as the Canadian government doesn't have to foot too much of the bill.

I'm not saying we should be freeloaders. But pay for a missile defense system when our army is begging for scraps for their fighter planes? No way.

Maybe a good contribution would be $500 million - 1B or so. But I doubt we'll contribute even that.

Considering we got a healthy 9 billion dollar surplus this year, we can afford a few hundred million next year if the trend continues.

Brian

Ma Deuce · Post by **Ma Deuce** » 2004-11-04 08:18pm

It doesn't really matter whether the Canadian Public supports NMD or not.

I wonder how many of them have any clue how the NMD system is supposed to work. I know Jack Leyton doesn't, given how he's always bitching about "the weaponization of space", and his insistance on referring to it as "Star Wars"...

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2004-11-04 08:19pm

brianeyci wrote:Considering we got a healthy 9 billion dollar surplus this year, we can afford a few hundred million next year if the trend continues.

That money is being used to help pay down the national debt. We've already reduced our debt:GDP ratio to low levels not seen since before Mulroney's "conservative" government came to power in the 1980s, and we'd like to see that trend continue.

Aaron · Post by **Aaron** » 2004-11-04 08:20pm

brianeyci wrote:Just as long as the Canadian government doesn't have to foot too much of the bill.

I'm not saying we should be freeloaders. But pay for a missile defense system when our army is begging for scraps for their fighter planes? No way.

Maybe a good contribution would be $500 million - 1B or so. But I doubt we'll contribute even that.

Considering we got a healthy 9 billion dollar surplus this year, we can afford a few hundred million next year if the trend continues.

Brian

We don't have to contribute money. We can allow our scientists to work on it and coordinate with theirs. And like the DEW line, government could strike a deal in which the missiles are based in Canada but the Yanks cough up most of the money. Local Canadians could be trained to maintain the sites, just like the DEW LIne.