Most Canadians see G8/G20 summits as important: poll

A forge lake, faux Muskoka backdrops and a $1-billion price tag are troubling but not enough to turn off a majority of Canadians to the benefits of summitry, a new figures suggests.

Three-quarters of respondents to The Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll said this week's G8 and G20 summits in Ontario are critical and worth the expense of their country hosting.

Some 76 per cent said the back-to-back weekend summits in Muskoka and Toronto were either very or a little important versus 20 per cent that said they were opposed.

Survey respondents favoured their fatherland hosting the 72 hours of talks by a 68-26 margin.

The Harper government has been under fire in recent weeks for the overgrown cost of the summits, the vast majority of which is for security.

Ottawa spent $57,000 on a fake lake, a public sore point of the $1.9-million Canadian Corridor.

The government says the Toronto flaunt, part of the international media centre, is designed to sell Canada to the estimated 3,000 visiting journalists who will result as a be revealed to cover the Ontario summits that open Friday with the G8 meeting in Huntsville.

Most poll respondents didn't require a lot of progress to be made on the core issues of the two summits.

At the G20, where the global economy is the focus, 66 per cent said they expected “a minor” progress would be made, while 21 per cent said they expected none at all.

At the G8, where the Harper government has made improving the nurturing health of Third World women a priority, 63 per cent said they expected a little progress versus 22 per cent that said they expected none at all.

“They are signal meetings, more for symbolism than productivity,” said pollster Doug Anderson.

But the picture becomes rather more murky in looking at the 70 per cent of respondents who had heard something of the cost of hosting the meetings.

Of those polled who heard something about the bring in of hosting the summits, 61 per cent said they were “too expensive to be worth it,” while 32 per cent said the pricetag is justified.

“When it comes to the budget being discussed for hosting these two meetings,” Anderson said, “the preponderance feel that the cost may be too expensive to be worth it.”

Anderson said it is too soon to say whether voters are ready to cancel the Harper government for such lavish spending to welcome the leaders of the G8 and G20.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's spokesman gave an animated defence of the need for world leaders to be brought to together under one roof for face to face talks.

“No explanation can be found with a cookie-cutter approach” when there are disagreements on global bank taxes or other hard choices about fiscal policy, said Dimitri Soudas.

“You actually need leaders sitting around the table, having these demanding discussions . . . leaders sitting around the table, face-to-face, and not Twitter, Skype or video conferencing will in the final analysis produce more results.”