Focus our study

Now that I see the way that this question has played out I do understand the concerns with regards to all the variables that go into the percentages of government expenditure percountry, and agree that it would be dangerous to compare just those numbers without taking any other variables into consideration. Using the GDP and percentage of GDP for defense among other countries could potentially be more credible than the previous question, but could still face similar challenges.I like the question and am curious as to how people's answers would perhaps differ from their overall survey if we, say, asked them that question last, but there are a lot of problems with it.

Also, with regards to Bala and Jordan suggesting we use our GDP percentages of health care, education, welfare e.t.c. I can tell you right now that most of the Canadian population, if they see comparatively how much of the GDP is sucked up by "defense" they will advocate for LESS defense spending. This is just a theory but people in Canada are much more welfare/education/healthcare minded over defense and any extra dollars they can put towards something they will see directly and positively effect their country will most likely get the brunt of their support, so I would say that asking a quesiton like this would not replace the question above in a sense that you would most likely get differing responses, but it is a valid question in itself and could very well be used to solidify where Canadian's stand with Defense spending.