Canadians losing their desire to co-operate with U.S. on key issues: poll

Canada is losing its appetite for co-operating with the United States as both countries drift apart on issues of national security, border safety and counter-terrorism, according to a survey of 1,000 random citizens in each country.

Canadians are more bullish about pursuing their own national interests and feel closer to Britain than the United States on family values and human rights, according to the annual survey by Nanos Research. However, Americans still feel they share a lot in common with Canadians and are more willing to co-operate, the poll suggests.

"Although erosion for the appetite for co-operation on national security policies has occurred in both countries, the drop has been much more dramatic in Canada," the Nanos report says.

The annual survey – a partnership between Nanos and the State University of New York at Buffalo – was conducted by randomly phoning 1,000 Canadians on cell and land-lines in late August. Another 1,000 Americans were questioned online in a random representative survey. Nanos compared the data to its own identical surveys dating back to 2005 to chart trends in public opinion on Canada-U.S. relations on both sides of the border.

The results are considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Go it alone

Twenty-two per cent of Canadian respondents strongly agreed that Canada should pursue its own interests, even if those interests lead to conflict with other nations. That number is the same as last year’s results and tied for second-highest in the history of the poll. The highest number of "strongly agree" responses (24%) came back in 2006, when the U.S. was embroiled in a war in Iraq.

By comparison, only 19 per cent of Americans answered "strongly agree" to the same question about their country. Their highest levels of strong agreement came in 2012 and 2009, at 21 per cent.

On issues of national security, border protection and anti-terrorism, respondents in the United States were consistently more willing to co-operate than respondents in Canada. However, the percentage of people willing to co-operate on both sides has eroded since Nanos started asking its questions in 2005.

For instance, as Canada prepares to join a U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State militants in Iraq, the poll shows Canadian support for co-operating on anti-terrorism is at a 10-year low. Only 57 per cent of respondents wanted closer or somewhat closer relations with the U.S. on anti-terrorism. That's a drastic drop from the 74 per cent high of 2006 – in the midst of the Iraq war – and well below the U.S. response for this year. According to the poll, 72 per cent of American respondents want closer or somewhat closer ties with Canada on anti-terrorism.

The survey also asked respondents if they want closer or somewhat closer ties with their neighbour on national security and border security. Canadians again showed significantly less support for such a move. Canadian support trailed the U.S. by 19 percentage points on national security (46% support vs. 65%), and nine percentage points on border security (59% vs. 68%).

Family ties

The survey asked respondents to pick their closest and second-closest countries on a variety of issues. Aside from Canada and the U.S., the list included Britain, Japan, France, Germany, China and Mexico.

According to the survey, Canadians now feel as much in common with Britain as the U.S. when it comes to family values. The two countries tied with 39 per cent of respondents' first-place votes when asked to rank the list of countries based on how closely they reflect Canadian values. Prior to 2014, the U.S. had always been alone as Canada's top-ranked country for family values.

However, American respondents still ranked Canada first, well above other countries on the list.

Canada received the most first-place responses from Americans in terms of human rights, but Canadians said they felt closer to Britain than the United States on the issue. It was the second year in a row that Canada ranked Britain ahead of the U.S., after five straight years of the opposite.

Strictly business

Despite a widening gulf in attitudes of co-operation, family values and human rights, both countries seem to believe they share similar business values, according to the poll. Canadian respondents ranked the U.S. as the country closest to it in terms of business values, with 61 per cent of respondents giving the U.S. a first-place vote. Britain was a distant second, with only 20 per cent of the first-place votes.

U.S. responses to the question were much more varied, but for the first time in 10 years, Canada came out on top with 24 per cent of the first-place votes. Japan and Britain tied for a close second at 21 per cent, followed by China at 18 per cent.

United in mistrust

Canadian and American respondents showed similar levels of distrust for Mexico and China. When Canadian respondents were asked to rank the country whose shipping containers they would want inspected most, 46 per cent said China's shipments and 41 per cent said Mexico's. The numbers were a slight inversion of recent years, when Mexico ranked higher than China. But both countries were the top first-place vote-getters for the last 10 years.

Americans answering the same question ranked Mexico first at 42 per cent, followed by China at 36 per cent. Mexico and China received far more votes than all other countries.

France, Japan, Britain and Germany all received less than five per cent of the first-place votes from Canadians and Americans. However, the third-highest response for Canadians was the United States, at eight per cent.

Mexico and China were again at the top of the charts when respondents were asked whose citizens they wanted to see thoroughly questioned at a country border. Canadians said Chinese people 41 per cent of the time and Mexicans 35 per cent of the time. Americans were third at 14 per cent.

Mexicans dominated the list for the U.S., with 53 per cent of the votes. Chinese were second at 23, and all other nationalities were at the bottom of the chart, below five per cent.

The United States remains embroiled in ongoing illegal immigration conflicts with Mexico, which perhaps explains the mistrust of Mexican people and imported goods at an American border.