|
Politcal: American knowledge
|
View this Thread in Original format
| Tudo Beleza |
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/021201/6/qkyv.html
Only eight per cent of Americans know identity of Canada's PM, poll indicates
By DONALD MCKENZIE
MONTREAL (CP) - Canadians are much more informed than Americans when it comes to knowing the identity of their neighbours' political leader, national capital and largest city, an opinion poll suggests.
The Leger Marketing survey found that only eight per cent of 1,500 adult Americans named Jean Chretien when they were asked to identify Canada's prime minister. Five per cent gave other answers, including Pierre Trudeau, who died two years ago after last being in power in 1984.
A whopping 86 per cent said they didn't know or refused to answer.
The Americans were polled Oct. 7-13, long before Chretien's communications director, Francoise Ducros, created a stir in the United States and elsewhere when she called U.S. President George W. Bush a "moron."
Conversely, 90 per cent of the 1,502 adult Canadians who were polled Nov. 6-10 (also before the Ducros brouhaha, which led to her resignation) knew Bush was U.S. president, compared with three per cent who gave other answers.
When asked to name the capital of the other country, 88 per cent of the Canadians said Washington and 21 per cent of the Americans got Ottawa right.
Such numbers didn't surprise Colin Campbell, a professor of political science at the University of British Columbia who recently spent 19 years in Washington, D.C.
"I think Canadians are much more citizens of the globe than Americans are and I think they're much more attuned to their own nation than Americans are," Campbell said in an interview.
"Canadians are really intrigued by the world around them in a way that Americans aren't."
But Campbell wasn't about to let all Canadians off the hook.
"That 12 per cent (who couldn't name Washington) must be incredibly ignorant people. It just shows that in any population, there are some people who probably couldn't even give you the name of their grandfather."
Stephen Clarkson, a professor of political economy at the University of Toronto, said the lack of knowledge about Canada south of the border shouldn't surprise people.
"Americans are much more insular," said Clarkson, who has recently written a book entitled Uncle Sam and Us.
"It's not particularly Canada they don't know a lot about. They might have trouble with England..
"The Americans are ignorant about us. We're not important to them. We're not ignorant about the United States because they are important to us."
That sentiment was also reflected when the two sets of respondents were asked to name the other country's largest city.
Twenty-seven per cent of the Americans named Toronto, followed by Montreal at 22 per cent.
Vancouver got three per cent and Calgary had one per cent.
Other cities garnered 13 per cent, while the remaining 34 per cent either said they didn't know or refused to answer.
Meanwhile, 72 per cent of Canadians knew New York was the largest city in the United States.
Both Campbell and Clarkson said reports in the United States about Canada's professional sports teams might have had an influence on the American answers.
Campbell almost seemed to find 27 per cent a reasonable level of knowledge.
"I'm not saying that Americans are geography geniuses," he said. "Virtually every survey that's ever been taken has shown that they're numbskulls when it comes to geography, even their own geography.
"But, still, that (27 per cent) is a surprisingly robust number from my sort of jaundiced perspective of what the general public would know."
Meanwhile, both professors reacted similarly when asked whether the number of Americans who knew Chretien was prime minister would have been higher had the poll been conducted after Ducros' "moron" comment.
Clarkson: "Oh sure, for five minutes it would be...but they probably would have thought the prime minister was called Ducros."
Campbell: "No, they'd say she (Ducros) was prime minister."
The poll is considered accurate within 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. |
|
|
| halo20 |
Someone once compared it to me in a good manner. The U.S.A see us the same way we see Mexico. What do you know about Mexican politics? Who is their President? Do they have even have a President? Is Mexico city the capital? Blah Blah. He made some good points. And I shut up.
Just the fact that we live beside each other means . The U.S.A is still the mighty media machine which pretty much dominates the world on a international level. It's not necessarily that they don't know anything about Canada, they don't know anything that isn't American. Tu sais? |
|
|
| Tudo Beleza |
Lets see, the capital of mexico, is mexico city. The President is Ferando Fox(can not spell his first name) and he is a former executive of Coca-cola.
I think to not know the countries outside of your country is just being igroant.
But then i am not the best person to ask that question too, i am a politcal nut, so i live and breath this crap. |
|
|
| halo20 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Tudo Beleza
i am a politcal nut |
Then perhaps you should learn how to spell it :p (you made the same typo in the name of the thread) |
|
|
| King_Mack |
| quote: | Originally posted by Tudo Beleza
"The Americans are ignorant about us. We're not important to them. We're not ignorant about the United States because they are important to us."
|
good observation. May I humbly suggest this is purely because the general population of the States believe they are better than anyone else?
| quote: | Originally posted by Tudo Beleza
That sentiment was also reflected when the two sets of respondents were asked to name the other country's largest city.
Twenty-seven per cent of the Americans named Toronto, followed by Montreal at 22 per cent.
|
its prolly cuz our Clubs 0wn ass :gsmile: |
|
|
| Tudo Beleza |
| quote: | Originally posted by halo20
Then perhaps you should learn how to spell it :p (you made the same typo in the name of the thread) |
hehehehe i was not in the proper state of mind when i wrote, that i went to bed at 4 am, and woke up at 2 pm, heheh so my spelling is horrible when i am awake let alone just waking up.
halo it is Political right :D :D :eyes: |
|
|
| King_Mack |
| Tudo, that is the correct spelling |
|
|
| TheDemon |
| The fact that America thinks the name of our PM is Jean Poutine is ing hilirious. But damn, this just proves how much they really know.:haha: Oh well, they can always go back to their movies. |
|
|
| Dj Smitty20 |
Americans can be very nice people, but let's face it....they're idiots when it comes to things that aren't American.
They don't know anything about the wide world around them, yet their government seems to meddle in other nation's affairs quite often.
This is just like that poll CNN did awhile ago. Only 13% of American children could locate Iraq on a map. That is just unbelievable.
Ameircans = nice but very ignorant people. |
|
|
| halo20 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Dj Smitty20
Americans can be very nice people, but let's face it....they're idiots |
 |
|
|
| Ninjapimp |
halo20: You misquoted Dj Smitty20. He said,
| quote: | Americans can be very nice people, but let's face it....they're idiots when it comes to things that aren't American.
|
NOT
| quote: | | Americans can be very nice people, but let's face it....they're idiots |
Those are two very different statements.... |
|
|
| halo20 |
hahah Who the are you? It's the same comment, if you really want I can repost the picture with the whole sentence. It's still a generalization and I was poking fun at the fact that: hey, there are some smart Americans out there, even about things that aren't American.
Poor Poor DjSmitty, now you have lackeys like Ninjapimp (haha nice name) backing you up. |
|
|
|
|
