ABSTRACT
Modest differences in support for various gene technologies exist between the United States and Canada. In general, recent data suggest that in the aggregate, Canadians seem to stand somewhere between US and European populations on many issues (see, for example, Pollara/Earnscliffe, 2003). But this observation in itself provides little guidance for those attempting to understand or communicate with North American audiences or to develop public policy that takes public opinion fully into account. This chapter is an attempt to suggest alternative ways of conceptualizing audiences and publics vis-à-vis these technologies, using US and Canadian populations as cases in point.
