By John Jalsevac
July 3, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Yesterday seven different news organizations conducted online polls seeking the opinions of Canadians on the question of whether or not arch-abortionist Henry Morgentaler should have been awarded the Order of Canada.
The results of six of the seven polls showed a heavy majority being strongly against Morgentaler’s having been named to the Order. The seventh poll, which was the only one that did not offer a simple “yes” or “no” option, still showed a larger number of respondents being against Morgentaler’s receiving the award than were in favour.
While such online polls are far from being scientific, the results indicate, at the very least, that Morgentaler is a long way from being unanimously embraced by Canadians as a worthy recipient of Canada’s highest civic award.
A poll conducted by Newstalk 650 showed 85% of respondents being against Morgentaler’s receiving the award, with only 15% in favour. The Calgary Herald showed 77.95% against giving the award to the abortionist, with 22.05% in favour. VOCM’s poll showed 80% against and 14% in favour. While the Winnipeg Sun’s poll showed 76% against and 24% in favour, with a total of 3187 votes having been received.
The poll by CNews was the only poll not to offer a simple “yes” or “no” choice, instead giving the option of, “Yes, he’s a champion of women’s right,” or “No, he’s a murderer.” Despite the strong epithet of “murderer” being applied in the negative response, a higher number of respondents to the CNews poll still voted that, indeed, Morgentaler is a murderer, and does not deserve the Order of Canada, than voted that he is a champion of women’s rights. 47% said he is a murderer, while only 43% said he deserved the award. 11% said they were unsure. A total of 4129 votes were received by CNews.
The CTV poll, which received an especially large number of votes, with 16454 people having weighed in on the issue, showed 61% of respondents (or 9999) being against Morgentaler’s being named to the Order, and 39% (or 6455 respondents) being in favour.
Interestingly, the poll with the largest number of respondents, the Globe and Mail poll, can no longer be found on the Globe’s website, despite the fact that the site has an extensive archive of past polls. An e-mail sent to the Globe seeking an explanation for the disappearance of the poll was not returned by press time.
However, a blogger at the conservative website, Freedominion, claimed to have been able to access the results of the Globe and Mail’s missing poll through a “back door”. That blogger reported that the final results showed 56% of votes (or 11,467) being against Morgentaler’s receiving the award, and 44% (or 8,931) being in favour.