HOW ABOUT WE TRADE OUR 40% FOR THEIR 40%

Canadians vote Bush least-liked president (SHAWN McCARTHY, Jul. 12, 2003, Globe and Mail)

U.S. President George W. Bush is the most unpopular American president in recent memory among Canadians, with more than 60 per cent saying they have an unfavourable opinion of him, according to a new poll by Environics Research Group Ltd.

Relations between Mr. Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien have been strained over the U.S. decision to invade Iraq, among other issues, but most Canadians blame the American President for the worsening climate, Environics said in a poll released exclusively to The Globe and Mail.

Environics senior associate Derek Leebosh said that, while Canadians maintain a favourable attitude toward the United States, Mr. Bush is deeply unpopular here. That's in contrast to his still high, though declining, approval ratings among Americans.

"George Bush as president will probably be the best thing that ever happened to Canadian nationalism," Mr. Leebosh said. "He totally personifies the essence of the side of the United States that Canadians tend to dislike--the anti-intellectual Texan in a Stetson, social conservative."

If 25% of Americans in a poll even knew that Jacques Chretien is the president of Canada it'd be a miracle. Posted by Orrin Judd at July 13, 2003 1:02 PM