What NZers think of global figures
Lord Ashcroft did a huge poll in August of 5,000 New Zealanders. I’m going to summarise various findings in a series of posts on both Kiwiblog and my Patreon. I thought I would start with the section on what we think of various would leaders. Respondents could rate them from +50 to -50 so a score of 0 is neutral. The average scores in order are:
- Barack Obama 23.9
- Michelle Obama 21.6
- The Queen 20.1
- Emma Watson 12.9
- JK Rowling 12.8
- Angela Merkel 9.1
- Taylor Swift 7.3
- Joe Biden 7.3
- Richard Branson 7.3
- Oprah Winfrey 7.3
- Justin Trudeau 6.9
- Kamala Harris 6.8
- Beyonce 6.4
- Malala Yousafzai 4.6
- Elon Musk 3.6
- Bernie Sanders 1.6
- Prince Charles 1.1
- Emmanuel Macron 0.9
- Greta Thunberg -1.7
- Mark Zuckerberg -1.8
- Sheryl Sandberg -2.0
- Jeff Bezos -4.6
- Scott Morrison -5.3
- Boris Johnson -5.3
- Meghan Markle -5.9
- Xi Jingping -16.4
- Vladimir Putin -20.4
- Donald Trump -29.4
Interesting that the score for some are so out of alignment with how they are viewed in their own countries. Trudeau, Biden and Macron are all quite unpopular at home. I think this reflects the nature of how the NZ media report on those countries.
National and Labour voters did not always differ on how they saw the leaders. Obama was rated positively by both. Sanders was negative by National voters though. Trump had very low scores with both. Boris was mildly positive with National voters.
Also of interest is how massively popular JK Rowling is. If you lived on Twitter you would think she is despised, but 74% of NZers have a favourable opinion of her and only 20% unfavourable.