Poll Results: America has a Huge Influence

About a week ago, I placed a poll in the sidebar asking you guys what level of influence you thought United States politics had on the world. It seems there is a clear consensus that the U.S. has a pretty big influence. (image: CNN) I agree with these results, as I'm sure most of you can tell by my endless flow of U.S. news on this blog. Sure, Michael Steele acting foolish doesn't hurt or help Canada and the world; but, generally speaking, U.S. policies set the precedence for other countries to follow.

Here are the results of the poll:

While a few disagree with my stance (and the stance of the majority), I think this paints a pretty clear picture. During the last election cycle in Canada, the United States Presidential election seemed to take up more of the newspapers. Is this a bad thing? Maybe.

We often hear concerns over the amount of American content pumped into Canadian households; should those concerns include political news? I think politics is different. It is like other content disputes in that the U.S. content is generally more interesting, but in this case it actually matters tremendously. Having more Canadian movies, television, or radio helps to ensure an independent cultural industry, but is Canada's democracy threatened by U.S. political news?

Maybe it is. When we examine the last election cycle and assume my observations were correct about American election content outweighing Canadian election content, it may explain why Canada's turnout was a nearly historic low. Do Canadians care more about American politics? Hopefully all it takes is an inspirational figure in our system. When will we get that? Who knows...

Look for a new poll tomorrow!