OTTAWA - The Conservative government's verbal attacks on "environmental and other radical groups" have sparked a fear, most prevalent among Conservative voters, of an eco-terrorist attack on Canada's energy infrastructure, a new poll has found.
And the government would find strong support not only among its own supporters but from all Canadians, the poll finds, of using the RCMP and CSIS to spy on environmental groups as one of the means of preventing attacks on Canada's pipelines, refineries and hydro dams.
The poll, commissioned by Sun News Network and done by polling firm Abacus Data of Ottawa, finds that one in two of those surveyed believes the threat of an attack on an energy infrastructure facility to be either high or moderate.
Among those survey respondents who identified themselves as supporters of the Conservative Party of Canada, two-thirds rated the threat of an eco-terrorist attack as high or moderate. Even among NDP supporters, 47% saw the threat as high or moderate.
"What is most interesting about the issue of eco-terrorism is the depth of partisanship that seems to be driving opinion," Abacus CEO David Coletto said. "Conservative Party supporters are much more likely to believe there is a threat, are more likely to support preventative measure and are much more likely to blame environmental groups than other party supporters.
"It is clear that the Harper government's framing on issues around energy infrastructure security and 'radical environmental groups' has been successful in dividing the population."
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver launched the first salvo in this public relations war with an extraordinary "open letter" published Jan. 9 in which he said, "There are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block (the) opportunity to diversify our trade."
Though he never mentioned any project by name in his letter, Oliver appeared to be motivated by opposition among environmental and First Nations groups to the Northern Gateway Pipeline, which would take Alberta oilsands crude across the Rockies to a port in northern B.C., where it could be shipped to markets in Asia and around the world.
But Oliver broadened his attack to any anti-development environmental group.
"Their goal is to stop any major project no matter what the cost to Canadian families in lost jobs and economic growth," Oliver said. "No forestry. No mining. No oil. No gas. No more hydro-electric dams.
"These groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda."
Though Oliver and many other cabinet ministers, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, seem to have softened their rhetoric since, the sharp language in which environmentalists are cast as "radicals" seems to have struck a chord with a considerable number of voters, the poll finds.
As a result:
More than half (52%) strongly or somewhat support the idea of having armed guards at all major oil and gas refineries. Again, support was highest for this among Conservatives (64%) and lowest among Liberal supporters (45%).
Just less than half (49%) of respondents overall agreed that environmental groups are to blame for illegal behaviour against pipeline construction. Here again, those who voted Conservative were far more likely to agree with the statement -- 75% of Tory voters -- while 42% of Democrat voters somewhat or strongly disagreed with it.
Abacus drew the 2,099 participants for this survey from an online panel of more than 150,000 Canadians.
Abacus said it weighted the data for age, gender and other factors to mirror the latest Canadian census data. The pollster did not provide a margin of error for its results because panellists were not selected randomly.
The margin of error for a randomly selected panel of 2,099 is plus or minus 2.2%, 19 times out of 20.
Original Article
Source: toronto sun
Author: David Akin
And the government would find strong support not only among its own supporters but from all Canadians, the poll finds, of using the RCMP and CSIS to spy on environmental groups as one of the means of preventing attacks on Canada's pipelines, refineries and hydro dams.
The poll, commissioned by Sun News Network and done by polling firm Abacus Data of Ottawa, finds that one in two of those surveyed believes the threat of an attack on an energy infrastructure facility to be either high or moderate.
Among those survey respondents who identified themselves as supporters of the Conservative Party of Canada, two-thirds rated the threat of an eco-terrorist attack as high or moderate. Even among NDP supporters, 47% saw the threat as high or moderate.
"What is most interesting about the issue of eco-terrorism is the depth of partisanship that seems to be driving opinion," Abacus CEO David Coletto said. "Conservative Party supporters are much more likely to believe there is a threat, are more likely to support preventative measure and are much more likely to blame environmental groups than other party supporters.
"It is clear that the Harper government's framing on issues around energy infrastructure security and 'radical environmental groups' has been successful in dividing the population."
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver launched the first salvo in this public relations war with an extraordinary "open letter" published Jan. 9 in which he said, "There are environmental and other radical groups that would seek to block (the) opportunity to diversify our trade."
Though he never mentioned any project by name in his letter, Oliver appeared to be motivated by opposition among environmental and First Nations groups to the Northern Gateway Pipeline, which would take Alberta oilsands crude across the Rockies to a port in northern B.C., where it could be shipped to markets in Asia and around the world.
But Oliver broadened his attack to any anti-development environmental group.
"Their goal is to stop any major project no matter what the cost to Canadian families in lost jobs and economic growth," Oliver said. "No forestry. No mining. No oil. No gas. No more hydro-electric dams.
"These groups threaten to hijack our regulatory system to achieve their radical ideological agenda."
Though Oliver and many other cabinet ministers, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, seem to have softened their rhetoric since, the sharp language in which environmentalists are cast as "radicals" seems to have struck a chord with a considerable number of voters, the poll finds.
As a result:
More than half (52%) strongly or somewhat support the idea of having armed guards at all major oil and gas refineries. Again, support was highest for this among Conservatives (64%) and lowest among Liberal supporters (45%).
Just less than half (49%) of respondents overall agreed that environmental groups are to blame for illegal behaviour against pipeline construction. Here again, those who voted Conservative were far more likely to agree with the statement -- 75% of Tory voters -- while 42% of Democrat voters somewhat or strongly disagreed with it.
Abacus drew the 2,099 participants for this survey from an online panel of more than 150,000 Canadians.
Abacus said it weighted the data for age, gender and other factors to mirror the latest Canadian census data. The pollster did not provide a margin of error for its results because panellists were not selected randomly.
The margin of error for a randomly selected panel of 2,099 is plus or minus 2.2%, 19 times out of 20.
Original Article
Source: toronto sun
Author: David Akin
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