TORONTO – An overwhelming majority of Canadians are throwing their support behind incumbent U.S. President Barack Obama, indicating in a new poll that they’re certain he’ll win next week’s election.
While plenty of U.S. polls suggest Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney are locked in a dead heat just days before Americans head to the ballot box, 90 per cent of Canadians are confident Obama will be victorious on Tuesday, according to an Ipsos Reid poll conducted exclusively for Global News and Postmedia News.
Eighty-six per cent of Canadians even say that if they were to vote, they’d put the country’s fate in Obama’s hands. Only one in 10 Canadians say they’d hedge their bets on Romney unseating Obama.
Obama is better for Canadians, poll respondents say
The vast majority of Canadians may be more left-leaning because they believe Obama’s re-election would be the best way of preserving U.S.-Canada relations.
Eighty-two per cent of respondents polled say that keeping Obama as the American head of state would lead to a better partnership with the Canadian government than Romney.
On the world stage, Canadians also favour Obama. Eighty-seven per cent of those surveyed he’d make the better global leader when stacked beside Romney.
This wave of support for Obama flows into other election issues.
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It appears Canadians have tuned in to the past three presidential election debates that focused squarely on the economy and foreign policy.
More than 84 per cent of Canadians say Obama has a better foreign policy, while 15 per cent stand behind Romney’s platform when it comes to addressing world issues.
On the economy, Obama wins Canadians over again. While pundits have argued that Romney’s trade measures could present Canada with better business opportunities, poll findings show that by a landslide, Canadians have better faith in Obama’s economic promises.
Results from region to region
Support for either candidate varies, depending on province with both ends of the country siding with opposing parties, results how.
Respondents in Ontario and Quebec favour Obama the most, with 86 to 91 per cent of respondents in these Eastern Canada provinces – the highest amongst the country – admitting that they’d vote for Obama if they were heading to the polls.
Those in Alberta (22 per cent), Saskatchewan, Manitoba and B.C. (each 17 per cent), were more likely than the rest of the country to believe Romney stands a chance at beating Obama for America’s top job.
Quebecers, across the board, top the provinces in believing Obama is a better choice when it comes to cross-government relations (87 per cent), U.S.-Canada relations (91 per cent), on a world stage (92 per cent), and with economic portfolios (88 per cent).
In most categories, Ontario and Atlantic Canada closely trailed Quebec when it came to support for Obama.
Those in Alberta, who may have oil trade, pipeline progress and foreign partnerships in mind, tended to side with Romney on these same issues.
When it comes to the economy, for example, 29 per cent of Albertans said that Romney offers better solutions for North America, followed by respondents in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (22 per cent).
Between Oct. 30 and Nov. 2, 1,017 Canadians were interviewed online for the Ipsos Reid survey, which was weighted to bring it in line with Canadian demographics.
Nationally, it has a margin error of 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, but the margin of error is higher for specific regions of the country.
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