Views of NATO still strong in Canada, Germany: Nanos survey

A recent survey of Canadians and Germans shows both groups hold largely favourable views of NATO, at a time when more countries are looking to join the military alliance amid Russian President Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine.

The survey, done in partnership between Nanos Research and its sister organization Dimap in Germany, asked more than 1,000 Canadians and 1,000 Germans their views on the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Both Canada and Germany are members of NATO.

The results show that 79 per cent of Canadians hold mostly favourable views of NATO, including 38 per cent who are very favourable and 41 per cent who are somewhat favourable.

By comparison, 68 per cent of Germans were favourable, with 18 per cent very much so and 50 per cent somewhat so.

When also asked about their views on partnerships with other countries, a large majority of Canadians saw Germany in a positive light at 80 per cent, including 46 per cent who hold a positive view of the country and 34 per cent who are somewhat positive.

Germans, meanwhile, also viewed Canada favourably at 74 per cent, including 33 per cent who see Canada as a positive partner and 41 per cent who see the partnership as somewhat positive.

"NATO, still very strong in both countries, and there's some potential there in terms of how favourably Germans look at Canadians and how favourably Canadians look at Germans," pollster Nik Nanos said on CTV's Trend Line podcast.

Nanos is also the volunteer chair of Atlantik-Bruecke Canada, which describes itself as a not-for-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to developing positive relations between Canada and Germany, in partnership with Atlantik-Brucke in Germany.

Nordic countries Finland and Sweden recently announced their plans to join NATO. Finland, along with NATO member Norway, shares a large border with Russia.

Along with a number of economic sanctions against Russia, NATO's member countries also have individually supplied equipment and military arms to Ukraine.

Just this week, Canada announced it would send another 20,000 rounds of artillery ammunition to Ukraine at a cost of $98 million.

The ammunition is being sourced from the United States, with the funding coming from the $500 million set aside in the 2022 federal budget.

Canada also is providing another $1 million to help international investigations into sex crimes committed by Russian troops in Ukraine.

ENERGY POLICY

Nanos and Dimap also asked Canadians and Germans which countries they would be comfortable with as energy partners.

This comes as several European countries, including Germany, look to wean themselves off Russian oil. A recent study found Germany was the biggest buyer of Russian energy during the first two months of the war in Ukraine.

The Nanos-Dimap survey found Canadians are largely comfortable with Germany as an energy partner at 61 per cent of those surveyed.

Canadians were similarly comfortable with Australia and the United States as energy partners at 63 and 61 per cent, respectively.

Germans also viewed Canada favourably as an energy partner at 64 per cent.

In contrast, only eight per cent of Canadians are comfortable with Middle Eastern countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia as energy partners, with an even smaller proportion at ease with the idea of energy partnerships with China or Russia.

"So the fact that the U.S. is part of the mix not a big surprise because we're already significant energy partners," Nanos said.

"But Germany is seen as being just as appealing as the United States or Australia, and it speaks to the opportunity for, kind of, more dialog and relations between Canada and Germany."

The Canadian results are based on telephone and online random surveys of 1,005 people between April 29 and May 2. The results are accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The German results are based on online surveys of 1,055 people from May 4 to 9 and are accurate within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

With files from CTVNews.ca Online Politics Producer Rachel Aiello, The Canadian Press and The Associated Press