According to Senior Vice-President Doug Anderson “While most Canadians appreciate the importance of the G8 and G20 meetings for Canada and are in favour of Canada playing host, they expect little in the way of issues being resolved. As such, the majority feel the budget for hosting these two meetings may be too expensive to be worth it.”

• Three in four are aware of the upcoming G8 and G20 meetings being hosted by Canada. Nationally, 76% had read, seen or heard something about Canada hosting these meetings, while 23% had not.
• Most Canadians feel international meetings such as the G8 and G20 are important for Canada and two thirds are in favour of Canada hosting them.
  • Nationally, 76% felt these meetings are either very (30%) or somewhat (46%) important. One in five (20%) feel it is not very or not at all important. Conservatives, Greens and younger Canadians were most likely to say these meetings are important.
  • Overall, a majority (68%) is either strongly in favour (10%) or favour (58%) Canada hosting these events. Conversely, one in four (26%) are against Canada hosting them. Interestingly, it is younger Canadians who are most likely to be in favour of Canada hosting such meetings.
• Few feel a lot of progress will be made, but most Canadians expect the meetings will be productive to some degree.
  • On the subject of the global economy, 11% think a lot of progress will be made, while 66% think a little will be made. One in five (21%) expect no progress will be made on this issue.
  • On the subject of maternal health, the same number (11%) is expecting a lot of progress on this file, while 63% expect a little, and 22% expect no progress will be made.
• Among the 70% of Canadians who said they had heard something about the costs of hosting these meetings, more than half describe it as too expensive to be worth it. In total, 61% expressed this view, while 32% feel that while expensive, the cost is worth it. Just 2% said the costs were not expensive. Residents of Quebec and Alberta, as well as Conservatives are most likely to say the costs are worth it, while Atlantic Canadians and New Democrats are most likely to say the costs are expensive, and not worth it.
  • Similarly, once given a cost figure of $1 billion, reactions were basically identical. In total, one in three (34%) feel the costs are expensive, but worth it, while a majority (58%) remains of the view that the costs are expensive and not worth it.
  • Those who are in favour of hosting these kinds of events are fairly evenly split over whether it is worth the expense. Not surprisingly, those who are against having Canada host it are nearly unanimously of the opinion that it is not worth the cost.

Each week, Harris/Decima interviews just over 1000 Canadians through teleVox, the company’s national telephone omnibus survey. These data were gathered between June 10 and June 13 2010. A sample of the same size has a margin of error of 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.