I’m soon to be back working in politics, so I’ve been thinking about issues. The accepted wisdom is typically that: “The environment and health care are likely to set Canada’s political table well into the future”. That’s according to a recent “poll” by the Canadian Medical Association.
Bull. Green issues are a fad.
Do you remember globalization? Once upon a time it was THE major issue. Books, magazines, lefty protests, all were consumed by it. But it seemed to peak at around the time of the Genoa riots. Since then – it’s been dead to the public.
Look below, this is the Zeitgeist on global warming. The zeitgeist tracks the frequency of Google searches at the top and media coverage at the bottom. Do you see the trend?
That CMA claim from above came from a poll released about a week ago. Look past the headline though and what will you find?
In the poll, 22 per cent of Canadians cited “environment” or “pollution” as the issue that “should receive the greatest attention of Canada’s leaders.” Another six per cent mentioned climate change and one per cent cite the Kyoto agreement. The CMA bundled these answers together.
But 15 per cent of Canadians cited war in Afghanistan, war in the Middle East or some variation on the same theme as their top concern. A further seven per cent said the military was their top issue. And two per cent cited terrorism. Bundle those answers and they total 24 per cent. Given that the poll’s margin of error is 3.2 percentage points, that’s not only in the same ballpark, it’s a tie game.
UPDATE: As if on queue:
From the National Post: While the punditocracy may share the opposition’s belief that the next election will be fought on the environment and the military — and that those issue favour the Conservatives’ challengers — both groups are simply drinking each other’s bath water. Voters will surprise them both.
Filed under: Canada, Politics, environment, global warming
Could it possibly be that these people have found out what they wanted to know or find, and now don’t need google to direct them again – or they’ve bookmarked it?
Just a thought.
Could also be that there is now greater coverage on mainstream media and so the need to search the net for such info is less?
Cheers
Steve
I’d say ‘no’. I thought that at first too so I tried a couple of other searches for things like the war or political leaders and such and for those the numbers hold steady.
As for the media – you’ll notice that there are a pair of trend lines. The one on the top is Google web searches, the one on the bottom is news coverage.