http://www.canada.com/national/story.asp?id={763ED089-3AC0-457B-885D-9D5D137 6D1D7}
Should Canada become the 51st American state? Four out of 10 Americans answered "sure" in a recent poll conducted by Leger Marketing of Montreal. While 38 per cent of respondents said they would be "in favour of Canada being annexed to the United States," 49 per cent disagreed. Another 13 per cent said they didn't know or refused to answer. But those who follow Canada-U.S. relations closely say Canadians shouldn't panic. "I wouldn't worry about the army coming," said Christopher Sands, director of the Canada Project for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. "I don't think there's any manifest-destiny thinking much in the United States anymore. People don't want to just acquire territory." Mr. Sands said he was somewhat puzzled by the "high minority" of Americans who said Canada should be annexed. However, he speculated the responses were an indication of goodwill toward Canadians should the government ever decide it wants to join the U.S. Harold Waller, who teaches U.S. politics at McGill University, said Canadians should view the poll result as a curiosity, rather than a real window on how Americans see us. "I doubt if the average American knows enough about Canada to make a reasoned assessment," said Mr. Waller. Mr. Waller said Americans likely didn't express overwhelming enthusiasm for annexation because they didn't see any obvious advantage to them. From a historical perspective, there hasn't been a real push by Americans for annexation since the 19th century, he added. Leger interviewed 1,000 Americans between Sept. 19 and Sept. 29 for the poll provided to The Canadian Press. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Leger compared the results to a similar survey of 1,508 Canadians in early September 2001. On the question of annexation by the U.S., 19.9 per cent of Canadians said they would be in favour, while 76.5 per cent rejected the proposition. Another 3.6 per cent said they didn't know or refused to answer. xponent World Domination Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
