Perusing the Canadian press this afternoon, found some results of an Ipsos-Reid poll that asked 1400 British Columbia residents who they would vote for as Prime Minister if they had U.S. nominees as well as Canadian to choose from.
Obama did quite well.
How well?
Not only do British Columbians strongly prefer Democratic candidate Barack Obama as president of the U.S. over Republican John McCain, they would also choose him as prime minister of Canada.
42% of the vote.
That's good for first place, 13 points ahead of current Canadian PM Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party (29%).
In third was not John McCain, but New Democrat Party leader Jack Layton with 12%, despite the fact two of his candidates dropped out of the upcoming election after being caught on video smoking marijuana. A third dropped out after news came to light that he once went skinnydipping at a children's event, with reports that he invited the children to 'bodypaint' him. Sounds like a Republican to me...
In 4th place, with 7% of the vote is the main opposition leader in Canada, Stephane Dion of the Liberal Party. Not good news for his election prospects...
Surely McCain must come in at 5th, right? Right? I mean, he's the leader of one of the biggest political machines in the world. He has spent tens of millions on ads that are seen in Canada on American TV, so surely he has to come in at least 5th in a US/Canada field... right?
Wrong. With 6% of the vote comes Green Party leader, Elizabeth May. The Greens have never elected a candidate into office in Canada. Ever. They only recently got permission to take part in the election debates, which they had previously not been invited to due to their lack of support.
Yet they draw more votes than McCain.
Honest John draws 5% of the vote in B.C., which puts him ahead of nobody but Quebec separatist leader Gilles Duceppe, who draws no votes in western Canada at all.
Kyle Braid, vice-president public affairs for Ipsos Reid, said the results were fascinating.
"B.C. has got a bit of a case of the Obama envy," he said. "It's really pretty incredible, the degree to which a leader from another country has set himself apart from other politicians.
"The numbers also show that Dion has managed to do that as well, but in his case it's completely in the wrong direction." (link)
So what does all this mean? I'm not sure, but we can see Russia from our house!