Northern states, Canada share values

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Northern states, Canada share values
42
Fri, 12-12-2003 - 2:38pm
Just thought that this might be interesting...considering the line of discussion in one particular thread...
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.


© 1998-2003 Seattle Post-Intelligencer


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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Fri, 12-12-2003 - 7:33pm
Thanks for the link; it is an interesting story and confirms my impressions of the different parts of Cananda.

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Sat, 12-13-2003 - 1:06pm
...as well as the different parts of the U.S.???

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-10-2001
Sat, 12-13-2003 - 1:50pm

I think it's true.

Photobucket


Alexa

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Sat, 12-13-2003 - 2:29pm
No, I've known that for years.

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Sat, 12-13-2003 - 6:35pm

I honestly wasn't trying to make this point to you.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Sat, 12-13-2003 - 6:42pm

Although, I wouldn't say


iVillage Member
Registered: 07-25-2003
Sun, 12-14-2003 - 1:02am
Ah, I see. No problem there, then. That's why on another thread, I suggested we might swap a few northern states for one or two western Canadian provinces.

Renee

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-23-2003
Sun, 12-14-2003 - 12:29pm

LOL!


iVillage Member
Registered: 10-05-2003
Mon, 12-15-2003 - 3:22am
I am more and more impressed by how divergent the 2 countries have become. For example, my level of amazed frustration and contempt when I learned that MOST Americans think Saddam caused 9/11 was so strong that I asked an American "what is it with you Americans, is your iq 20 points below the global average"? Her response was that it WAS!

It is simply inconveivable to me that Americans could be THAT stupid - but I guess they are!

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-05-2003
Mon, 12-15-2003 - 3:28am
you are WELCOME to Alberta. In exchange, we Canucks will take New York, Vermont, and Massachucetts.

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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