Blame Canada? Nah.

Practically nobody is blaming Canada, according to a new CBS News poll.

The survey found that 72 percent of Americans like our neighbor to the north, while only 2 percent dislike the snowy realm. And the love affair grows even stronger the closer you get to Canada. Eighty-two percent of the Americans who reside in the states that border Canada have favorable opinions about the country.

With the public expressing such warm feelings toward Canada, it's no surprise Americans consider Canada an ally of the United States. Sixty-seven percent regard Canada as an ally, and another 28 percent say Canada is friendly, though not an ally. Only 1 percent thinks Canada is unfriendly, and nobody thinks of our neighbor to the North as an enemy.

For all of the public's positive views of Canada, only 5 percent believe Americans pay a lot of attention to news about Canada's current events. A majority - 64 percent - say Americans pay either not much or no attention to news events in Canada.

The seeming lack of interest in Canadian affairs is evident by the fact that almost everyone could not name the nation's prime minister, even though Jean Chrètien has held that office for nearly a decade. Just 2 percent correctly named Jean Chrètien as the prime minister of Canada; 98 percent either named someone else or didn't have an answer.

There are only minor differences with regard to education; only 5 percent of those with a college degree were able to name Canada's prime minister. Jean Chrètien was first elected prime minister in 1993 and was re-elected to a third-straight majority government in the fall of 2000.

This poll was conducted among a nationwide sample of 660 adults, interviewed by telephone April 4-5, 2001. The error due to sampling could be plus or minus four percentage points for results based on the entire sample.size>

For detailed information on how CBS News conducts public opinion surveys, click here.

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