(05/09/11) -

Celebrations of Bin Laden’s Death Justified for Canadians and Britons

One-in-five Canadians and more than a third of Britons think the U.S. is less safe now than before the death of the al-Qaeda leader.

Most people in Canada and Britain believe Americans were right to celebrate the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a new two-country Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.

The online survey of representative national samples also shows that Britons appear to be more concerned about the possibility of terrorists targeting their country than Canadians.

When and How People Found Out

More than half of Canadians (53%) say they found out about the demise of the al-Qaeda leader on Sunday night—May 1, 2011—including large proportions of respondents in the Western provinces. Seven-in-ten Britons (72%) discovered the news about bin Laden’s death on Monday morning.

Half of Canadians (50%) and practically half of Britons (48%) first learned about the death of Osama bin Laden through television. Britons were more likely to find out on the Internet (19%, compared to 15% for Canadians), while Canadians were twice as likely to rely on social media (10%, compared to 5% for Britons).

Celebrations

There was little difference in the two countries when respondents were asked about the impromptu celebrations that occurred in Washington, D.C. and other American cities after the death of bin Laden was revealed. More than three-in-five respondents in both Canada (64%) and Britain (69%) believe these celebrations were justified, and only one-in-four (23% in Canada, 24% in Britain) think they were unjustified.

Credit

Canadians (75%) and Britons (76%) overwhelmingly believe that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) deserves “most of the credit” or “some of the credit” for the death of Osama bin Laden. More than three-in-five respondents also commend U.S. President Barack Obama (63% in Canada, 65% in Britain), while considerably fewer think former U.S. President George W. Bush should be lauded (19% in Canada, 15% in Britain).

Barely one-in-ten respondents in the two countries claim that the Government of Pakistan deserves credit for Osama bin Laden’s death (11% in Canada, 8% in Britain).

Safety

Most Canadians (65%) and Britons (52%) think the death of Osama bin Laden will make no difference in the safety of the United States. However, more than a third of respondents in Britain (37%) believe the U.S. is now less safe than it was before the al-Qaeda leader’s demise. In addition, three-in-five Canadians (62%) and three-in-four Britons (78%) think it is “very likely” or “moderately likely” that a deadly terrorist attack will take place in the United States in the next 12 months.

When it comes to safety in their own countries, three-in-four Canadians (75%) believe the state of affairs will not change, while 36 per cent of Britons suggest that their country is now less safe as a result of bin Laden’s death.

Full Report, Detailed Tables and Methodology (PDF)

CONTACT:

Mario Canseco, Vice President, Angus Reid Public Opinion
+877 730 3570
mario.canseco@angus-reid.com

Methodology: From May 3 to May 5, 2011, Vision Critical conducted an online survey among 1,009 Canadian adults who are Angus Reid Forum panellists, and 2,000 British adults who are Springboard UK panellists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 3.1% for Canada and 2.2% for Great Britain. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region Census data to ensure samples representative of the entire adult population of Canada, the U.S. and Great Britain. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding.