Canadians strongly approve of Ottawa’s stance on the crisis in Ukraine but are divided on other foreign policy issues, like whether to send soldiers to Iraq to fight the Islamic State, according to a new poll.
The Nanos/CTV News poll on foreign policy issues found that 48 per cent of Canadians approve and 28 per cent “somewhat approve” of the federal government’s strong support for Ukraine, even if it jeopardizes Canada’s trade with Russia.
When it comes to deploying Canadian troops to the Middle East as part of a NATO operation to stop Islamic extremists in Iraq and Syria, only 21 per cent of respondents approve of the idea, while 32 per cent said they “somewhat approve.”
Twenty-seven per cent said they disapprove and 16 per cent said they somewhat disapprove.
But although Canadians don’t want to see our troops involved in Iraq, they support sending humanitarian aid to the country’s war weary residents.
Nearly 60 per cent said they approve of Canada’s food and medical supply shipments to Iraq and only six per cent said they disapprove.
On other foreign policy issues, 47 per cent of Canadians said they disapprove or somewhat disapprove of the Canadian government’s strong and vocal support for Israel in the Gaza war. Forty-six per cent said they approve or somewhat approve.
Canadians appear to be equally divided when it comes to fast-tracking refugees from Arab countries. Forty-seven per cent said they approve or somewhat approve, while 46 per cent said they disapprove or somewhat disapprove.
The poll results are based on a random telephone survey of 1,000 Canadians between Aug. 24 and Aug. 28, as part of a Canadian omnibus survey. The poll is accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
