For about three months this year, oil gushed unchecked into the Gulf of Mexico and images of devastated wildlife and oil-slicked beaches bounced around the world, and now Canadians have named the ecological disaster the top news story of 2010 by a wide margin.
One-third of Canadians, 32 per cent, chose the oil leak that ensued from an April explosion on BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig as the top story of the year, according to a poll conducted exclusively for Postmedia News and Global TV.
"The idea that BP and the U.S. government were not able to control what was happening in the Gulf of Mexico, with all of those resources, had to be a bit shocking for people. Not only were the pictures very vivid and you could see what was going on — and there was no denying it because they had those cameras right down on the leak — but they couldn't get it stopped," says Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Reid.
"With the oil spill, science couldn't save us."
The Haiti earthquake was second on the list, chosen by 20 per cent of Canadians as the most notable story of the year, and Bricker attributes that to both the devastation and Canada's close ties to the country and the relief efforts.
"It was so shocking and there's very clearly a connection between Haiti and Canada, a combination of our (former) governor-general (Michaelle Jean) and a large population of immigrants in Canada from Haiti," he says. "Canada has such a strong initial emergency response, we were very quickly on the ground and quickly engaged, and our media went along with our military."
The rescue of 33 Chilean miners trapped underground for 69 days was next on the list of top stories, with 17 per cent of Canadians picking that as the story of the year.
Bricker says it was the consummate human-interest story and offered a perfect happy ending.
"There but for the grace of God go us or our families, and it was a situation where nature entombed this group of miners and there was a very good chance that they would not come out alive," he says. "It actually ended as a made-for-TV movie should; it made it a compelling narrative and a compelling story."
Rounding out the Top 5 were the Vancouver Olympics, which got the nod from 13 per cent of Canadians, and WikiLeaks releasing diplomatic cables that had governments around the world scrambling to explain, which five per cent of Canadians picked as story of the year.
Bricker believes the Vancouver Olympics slipped down the list because they mostly played out as a British Columbia story, and indeed, 18 per cent of people in that province picked the Winter Games as the top story of 2010.
"If you lived in Ontario and you saw those opening ceremonies, it was like, 'What does this have to do with me?'" he says.
The trial of former CFB Trenton base commander and convicted murderer Russell Williams, the G8 and G20 Summits and the engagement announcement of Prince William and Kate Middleton were among the other top news choices suggested by Postmedia editors and Ipsos Reid.
"Where we can imagine ourselves in a situation or we see our basic assumptions about personal safety being challenged and things that have a human-interest narrative to them are the things that tend to stand out," says Bricker.
The poll was conducted December 9 to 14 and included 1,044 adults, with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
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