Most Canadians feel Harper best suited to represent Canada: poll

Nearly half of Canadians feel Canada’s diplomatic influence on the world stage has waned over the past decade of Conservative rule, says a survey released hours ahead of a leaders’ debate on foreign affairs issues.

Yet on most high-profile international issues, incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper is viewed as the best suited to represent Canada.

“It’s very contradictory,” says Shachi Kurl, spokeswoman for the Angus Reid Institute that conducted the survey.

For every survey respondent that feel Canada’s reputation is better today than 10 years ago, two feel it is worse — 21 per cent to 41 per cent, respectively. Thirty per cent say Canada’s reputation is the same and seven per cent are not sure.

“I think it does speak to the polarization and division of politics in this country,” Kurl says.

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair is the choice of the largest proportion of survey respondents when it comes to representing Canada on issues of human rights and climate change.

But asked who would best represent Canada on a world stage, in delivering a speech to the United Nations, on trade and economic policy and on terrorism and security, Harper comes out ahead.

That’s owing to strong support for Harper from his Conservative base, says Kurl. Both Mulcair and Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau have some division within their ranks on several issues.

“Their [Conservative] base is solidly, solidly onside; same with ISIS; same with the stance on refugees. So these are ‘winners’ for Harper on a bunch of key issues that will certainly motivate and move his base,” she says.

“Those are votes that he can take to the bank.”

Harper’s critics have lambasted the Conservative leader’s performance on the global stage, saying his policies have squandered Canada’s international reputation.

And they are not alone.

An internal Foreign Affairs document leaked to the Globe and Mail warns that this country’s influence has declined.

“Despite Canada’s reputation as an active player on the world stage, by many measures, its relative influence has declined or is under threat,” says the report prepared for a meeting of deputy ministers earlier this month.

Yet, on touchstone issues, the Angus Reid poll found the largest proportion of respondents were onside with Harper: Keystone XL, the U.S.-led mission to combat ISIS and the Syrian refugee crisis.

And like the incumbent government, a majority of respondents felt that trade should be the focus of Canadian foreign policy.

The institute conducted the online poll last week of 1,487 members of the Angus Reid Forum.

Because it is an online poll, there is no margin of error on the Angus Reid Institute poll. For comparison, a traditional survey of this size would carry a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

These issues and more will be up for discussion at the first-ever leaders’ debate on foreign affairs, being hosted Monday event in Toronto by the Munk School of Global Affairs.

With the three main parties so close in the polls, the campaign has yet to find the issue that will set one apart, Kurl says.

Domestic issues are typically more important to Canadians, though.

“Canadians are not getting up in the morning focused on foreign issues and international issues and Canada’s place in the world,” she says. “They’re focused on their own domestic issues, what I call home economics — their car payments, mortgages, tuition fees, job security….

“These are the issues that are really concerning Canadians day-to-day.”