Northern states, Canada share values
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| Fri, 12-12-2003 - 2:38pm |
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/152194_canadapoll12.html
Northern states, Canada share values
Poll says split is actually within U.S.
Friday, December 12, 2003
By SHAWN MCCARTHY
THE (TORONTO) GLOBE AND MAIL
NEW YORK -- Americans from the northern states often have more values in common with their Canadian neighbors than they do with their cousins from southern states, according to a leading U.S. pollster.
Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center, rejected assertions by many of his colleagues that Canada and the United States are on divergent paths leading to a widening values gap.
"When we look deeper into the data, we find the gap between Americans and Canadians is not a national gap, it's a regional one," Kohut told the Canadian Society of New York this week.
For example, the United States is both more religious and more secular than Canada, with religious intensity on the rise in the South and Southwest and church adherence on the decline in the Northeast and on the West Coast, he said.
Americans from the North, particularly New England, are less religious, more tolerant of homosexuality and less likely to regard a husband as the dominant head of the family than their counterparts in southern states.
On such issues, northerners' views are strikingly close to the norms in adjoining areas of Canada, although Kohut said that in some regions of Canada -- notably Southern Alberta -- moral and social views are more in tune with those of the Southern United States.
A number of analyses have mentioned a growing social divide between the United States and Canada, highlighted by the power of the evangelical right in the White House and the Liberal government's move to decriminalize marijuana and allow same-sex marriages.
Last week, The New York Times carried a front-page story describing a "chasm that has opened up on social issues that go to the heart of fundamental values." But Kohut said that chasm is as pronounced within the two countries as it is across the border. The Pew Center conducted a series of polls last month, testing U.S. attitudes toward homosexuality and other social issues.
On gay rights, there is a "general liberalizing trend" in the United States, he said, adding that regions with large evangelical populations are lagging the more secular areas.
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Renee
cl-nwtreehugger
Co-cl: In The News http://messageboards.ivillage.com/n/mb/listsf.asp?webtag=iv-elinthenews&nav=start
Community Leader
I think it's true.
Alexa
Renee
I honestly wasn't trying to make this point to you.
Although, I wouldn't say
Renee
LOL!
It is simply inconveivable to me that Americans could be THAT stupid - but I guess they are!
In Canada, there is a far-right political party - indeed, it is so far right that in some respects it's almost as bad as your Republican party - that is kept alive by rednecks in Alberta. It tries and tries to get national support, but really goes nowhere, because it is full of mouth-breathing rednecks, anti-gay cranks, religious fundamentalist wingnuts and semi-literate boors. Most Canadians want nothing to do with this gang, but they would likely be seen as excellent members of your Republican party, albeit on the "liberal" side of the party.
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