Here's an interesting poll. It's interesting not only because it says Canadians approve much more of Harper's stance than I would have thought, but also because the poll says almost the opposite of what the headline suggests it does.
When I read "Half think Harper too pro-Israel" I assumed that close to half of those polled felt that Harper's position in the latest crisis is too close to Israel. Or AT LEAST that a plurality thinks so.
Here's what the poll found in reality.
Harper's position is:
"decidedly too pro-Israel and is not appropriate" - 44%
"fair and balanced and completely appropriate" - 45%
Now, so far, you could argue that the headline "half think Harper too pro-Israel" isn't so bad, since there's only a 1 point difference between the two options, and one would assume that the missing 11% are the classic "undecideds". So there's some spin there, but not too much. Right?
Wrong.
The problem is, the other 11% weren't undecided.
The other 11% responded that Harper's position "doesn't support Israel strongly enough".
So there are three camps in this poll. 44% think Harper's position tilts too far towards Israel. 45% think Harper's position is balanced. 11% think Harper isn't being pro-Israel enough.
So, while the headline makes it seem that half of Canadians want Harper to have a more "anti-Israel" stance, this ignores the 45% of Canadians who think his stance is fine (more than those who think it's too pro-Israel), and the 11% of Canadians who want us to support Israel MORE. So 56% of Canadians think Harper's stance is either fine, or should move more towards Israel's side, and yet "Half" of Canadians think Harper's stand is "too pro-Israel".
An interesting example of headlines and statistics clashing.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Half think Harper too "pro-Israel"... NOT...
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
Please, for the love of God, don't call him "Mister"....
OK, all this "Steve" talk has a lot of people making suggestions about what we should call the Prime Minister, including the Globe and Mail's current online poll, which has among its suggestions (as many others have suggested) "Mr. Prime Minister".
Oh, for the love of God no!
You can't just stick "Mr." in front of "Prime Minister" the way one does with "President", it just doesn't work. "Prime Minister" is the proper form of address should you not wish to use the Prime Minister's name.
"Good morning, Prime Minister."
"How are you today Prime Minister?"
"Yes, Prime Minister."
...but NEVER "Mr. Prime Minister".
You would never call a cabinet minister "Mr. Minister" (tell me you wouldn't!) and one should no more refer to the PM as "Mr." Prime Minister than you would call the Minister at your church "Mr. Minister". It's not that I don't like the "Americanization" of stealing the "Mr. President" meme, it's just that for a Prime Minister, it's wrong. As in "incorrect". Or, as I prefer, wrong, wrong, wrong.
OK end of rant. Sorry about that, but the whole "Mr. Prime Minister" thing that people who don't know any better use really gets under my skin, and I've seen it 20 times since the whole "Steve" thing came up.
Knock it off people.
:-)
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Shocking Globe and Mail Poll....
In response to the question "Do you believe multiculturalism remains an appropriate policy for Canada in the 21st century?" currently 55% are saying NO on the Globe and Mail's latest poll!!!
Not only am I shocked that so many Candians would come out against multiculturalism, I'm even MORE shocked that they would do so, presumably at least in part, in reaction to a bunch of idiot terrorists-in-training who didn't know enough to avoid little things like getting caught smuggling guns across the border, running around in camouflage fatigues in a small northern Ontario town (while spending all your time on a remote compound firing off automatic weapons for all the neighbours to hear), and trying to purchase THREE TONNES of ammonium nitrate.
I'm upset that we appear to perhaps be letting the terrorists win by being scared into changing our country in response to their actions.
I'm OUTRAGED that we may be doing this in repsonse to STUPID terrorists.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Canadian Girl places second at Scripps National Spelling Bee
Everyone take a break from all the depressing political news and bashing each other over the head for this feel good story!
I'm sure we all agree we couldn't be more proud!
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
The first sign of the apocolypse...
Katie Couric as the anchor of the CBS evening news?!?!?
I heard Bill Maher make a joke about this on the "Real Time" podcast last week, but I thought he was just making it up!!!
I expect to see horsemen any day now.
