Canada still a positive influence

A recent BBC World/Globescan poll of 28,000 people in 27 countries has landed Canada in the enviable No 1 position as regards international perceptions of which countries have a positive or negative influence in the world.
54% apparently see Canada as having a mainly positive influence on the world, equalled only by Japan and closely followed by the European Union. But only 14% perceive Canada as having a mainly negative influence, significantly less than any other country.
At the other end of the scale (of the 12 countries which were the subjects of the poll) were world pariahs Israel, Iran, North Korea and the United States.
This comes after a November 2006 Macleans/Angus Reid poll of 20 countries for their views on Canada and the world, which indicated that the rest of the world still sees Canada's quality of life as better than that of other countries.
Canadians, who in recent months have been aware of a rather slippery slide in our international reputation due to our (or at least our government's) prevarications on Kyoto, the more aggressive international military role we seem to be taking, and our subservience to the political will of our neighbours to the south, are in shock.
But pleasantly so.