A new Ipsos-Reid/CTV/Globe and Mail poll shows 73 per cent of Canadians are ready to join the U.S. in its war on international terrorism. But this support drops to 54 per cent if a war means potential Canadian civilian casualties.
Albertans offered the strongest support at 86 per cent, and Quebec the lowest at 59 per cent.
Men are also more likely than women to commit support, with 79 per cent of men saying Canada should declare war on international terrorism, versus 68 per cent of women.
Of those questioned, 55 per cent believe there are international terrorists within Canada "who are just waiting to attack Canadian civilians."
In terms of national security, 39 per cent of Canadians say they are "confident that the government of Canada and its security services are capable of preventing terrorist attacks in Canada."
About half of those polled - 53 per cent - are willing to give up their privacy, in an effort to give police and security services more power to fight terrorism, even if it means authorities may tap their phones, open their mail and read their personal e-mail.
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien gets high marks for his handling of issues related to the terrorist attacks in the U.S. Overall, 74 per cent of those polled approve his handling of issues, versus 22 per cent who disapprove.
Mr. Chrétien's highest approval rating was in Saskatchewan and Manitoba (81 per cent). His lowest was in Alberta (64 per cent).
Poll methodology
The poll was conducted between September 17, 2001 and September 20, 2001 and is based on a randomly selected sample of 1,000 adult Canadians. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate to within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire adult Canadian population been polled.
The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were statistically weighted to ensure the sample's regional and age/sex composition reflects that of the actual Canadian population according to the Canadian Census data.