Afstan update: Canadians now favour the mission/Perils of polls

Pity the Globe did not put this poll with a headline on the front page. This was their screaming May 6 headine: "SUPPORT PLUMMETS FOR AFGHAN MISSION".

...Canadians are also more supportive of the mission, with 48 per cent saying they back sending the troops, compared with 44 per cent who oppose the move. Support now outweighs opposition by four percentage points, compared with earlier this month when opposition outweighed support by 14 points.

Mr. Gregg [chairman of the Strategic Counsel, the firm that conducted the poll for The Globe and Mail/CTV News] says the figures show that Canadians are not prepared to use the threat of terrorism as an excuse to get out of Afghanistan. Interestingly, support for the mission has increased the most in the province of Quebec [emphasis added - MC], where 39 per cent support the move, up from 27 per cent last month...

Another interesting poll:

In the end, only a minority of Canadians (31%) offer the opinion that "terrorist threats like this one have everything to do with the fact that Canada's troops are involved in combat in Afghanistan" - most (61%) say "that even if Canadian troops weren't in Afghanistan we'd still be a target for terrorism because we are a Western Country".

These are the findings of an Ipsos Reid poll conducted on behalf of CanWest / Global News from June 6-8th, 2006...

This is what Mr Gregg's poll found:

Canadians also appear to be convinced that Canada will be a target of terrorism because of its presence in Afghanistan. Fifty-six per cent say the Canadian presence there makes an attack more likely, up a substantial 18 percentage points from last year...

Note that these answers are not contradictory. They simply give very different impresssions as a result of different questions. It is actually quite reasonable to believe that our current mission in Afstan makes terrorist attacks more likely in the future (Strategic Counsel) while at the same time believing we would be a target even without our military presence (Ipsos Reid).

But the former poll produces much more negative-seeming results than the latter.

H/t to Army.ca.