In a poll of 1,000 Americans, it was revealed that only 4% correctly identified Canada as the largest foreign oil supplier.
Most Americans think that most of their oil comes from the Middle East countries (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, and Iran), and also naively blame their own gasoline consumption as "funding terrorism".
The latter never made sense to me, for many reasons. Now it is proven to be double false, since their largest supplier is Canada and not Middle Eastern countries.
Resources
- Canadian American Business Council press release on the poll (PDF).
- CBC News Article June 27, 2006
Comments
Anonymous (not verified)
Recent occurance
Sat, 2006/07/08 - 13:16That's nice, but as best I can tell this is a recent occurrence (~2004) and we take 99% of Canada's exports. There is no headroom, so everything you or I purchase is effectively adding to another countries exports.
Also, the money we send to countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran should certainly make us bat an eyebrow. You think the bin Laden family would be half as rich as they were without oil money?
Khalid
Comments
Sat, 2006/07/08 - 18:45It is not 99%. The figure that is often quotes is that 80% of Canada's trade is with the USA. This should not be surprising, since Canada is resource rich (timber, oil, ...etc.) and the USA is its only neighbor, and a rich neighbor.
As for the rest of your comment, so what if Bin Laden's family are rich? They did not make their money from oil to begin with, rather construction inside Saudi Arabia during the oil boom. You should also note that Osama was disowned by the family when he had a falling off with the royal family in 1990/1991 after Saddam's invasion of Kuwait. Up until then he (and Saddam) were good guys in America's books, one helping against Iran in the 80s, and the other against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the late 70s and 80s.
The US is pouring money in China now, despite them not being exactly good guys ideologically and politically.
The saga continues ...