Can you believe 94% of Canadians think the world has a favourable view of Canada?

That is a strange disconnect from reality.
The Pew Research Centre connected the poll in April and May.

The sympathy and empathy Canadians felt toward the US in 2002 has slipped from 92% to 59%. We’re more likely to view Germany, France and Japan more favourably.

Canadians also felt that Americans were more greedy, rude and violent than we did last survey.
Interestingly 70% of Americans viewed themselves as greedy.
39% of Americans believed they were immoral.

75% of Canadians were not happy George W. Bush was re-elected.
16 other countries surveyed had the opinion the US was broadly disliked.
British views of the US dropped from 75% in 2002 to 55% in 2005.

26% of Americans believed their country was well-liked.
That is way down, most Americans feel they have an image problem in the rest of the world.

The biggest gap from how Americans see themselves verus the rest of the world was in the area of religion.
58% of Americans believe their country is not religious enough. Pakistan, Turkey and Indonesia agree with their US counterparts.

The good news for the US:

Some American policies have managed to lift opinion in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. However, the affect of these policies on world opinion has been marginal.

The report shows that President Bush’s push for democracy in the Middle East and aid for tsunami victims were “well received in many countries.” However, the report goes on to read that “only in Indonesia, India and Russia has there been significant improvement in the overall opinions of the United States.”

And Canadians believe that Americans are inventive and hardworking. (we’ll try not to break our arm patting you on the back here)

Canada, get a grip.
It may well be playing of the US image in the rest of the world but 94% of Canadians polled believe thier country has a positive image in the rest of the world? Whew. No other country came close to that hubris.

The Global Attitudes study is here.

I see opportunites here for bloggers, for blog readers - it’s a broad enough survey - maybe it’s a chance to listen to each other. Maybe. I think changes, the lasting changes in communication, are going to occur on the individual level.