81% of the World's People Hold Canadians in High Esteem. Why?

People Hold Canadians in High Esteem.  Why?

The World Economic Forum reports 18,000 people of 25 countries have good things to say about Canada.

“These countries have the most positive influence on the world” Keith Breene World Economic Forum July 7, 2017

As Barry Ritholz in his blog “The Big Picture” on July 16, 2017 said in his reporting of this finding, “Interesting: Source World Economic Forum.”

Interesting indeed!

The Ipsos Reid poll actually asked which country has the most positive influence globally.

I’m sure that requires some unpacking in understanding the respondents’ understanding of the terms “positive”, “influence”, “globally”.

Fascinating that 81% of people of 25 different countries viewed Canada and our influence favourably.

This suggests to me that people across 25 different countries have some agreement about what positive, influence and globally mean.  The one term that I find truly interesting is “positive”.

I take that to mean that Canada is bringing about changes, leading the world in directions they want to go.

As a Canadian, that makes me a little proud.  I might be prouder still if I knew what specifically it is that people of the 25 countries think makes Canada’s influence positive.

You see I think these people also want us keep up the positive influence.  Indeed I want us to continue to be a positive influence.

Would be so much easier to meet that obligation if we knew what constitutes positivity for them and us.

The next step seems to me to ask people, including Canadians,  what specifically we think Canada is positively influencing in order to help us understand why people think Canada is a positive influence.

Michael Klein