U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and discuss making Canada the 51st state have made Canadians offended — very offended.
A brand new ballot by Ipsos for World Information discovered a whopping 68 per cent of Canadians surveyed assume much less of america as a rustic, after Trump threatened Canada’s financial system with 25 per cent tariffs that had been meant to enter impact this week, earlier than being paused.
Almost half of all respondents, 46 per cent, mentioned they strongly held that adverse notion.
“What surprised me is the intensity of the responses,” mentioned Sean Simpson, senior vice chairman of Ipsos Public Affairs.
The excessive variety of folks voicing sturdy opinions, he mentioned, means “this isn’t some idea they have that they may or may not act on. This is something that they intend to follow through on. The feelings are visceral.”
In response to the ballot, two-thirds of Canadians say they are going to be avoiding buying U.S.-made items transferring ahead, as a “Buy Canadian” motion grows in response to Trump’s financial threats.
An analogous quantity mentioned they might additionally keep away from journey to the U.S., with 45 per cent saying they felt strongly about their resolution.
Simpson mentioned the anger towards the U.S. was strongest amongst respondents aged 55 and over who’ve a deeper historic understanding of the bilateral relationship, after watching previous U.S. presidents work properly with Canada.
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“All of those conventions are laying in shambles at the feet of Donald Trump,” he mentioned. “And so older Canadians are saying, ‘My gosh, what is going on here?’”
He identified that older Canadians are additionally extra prone to be snowbirds that reside within the U.S. part-time, making their resolution to cancel journey south of the border notable.
The ballot additionally spoke to the financial insecurity Trump’s threats have created amongst Canadians. Almost 60 per cent of these surveyed mentioned their very own private monetary scenario would endure because of Trump’s actions.
Sixty per cent mentioned they need the federal authorities to create a “major” subsidy program, just like those launched throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, to assist employees affected by U.S. tariffs and retaliatory actions from Canada.
Federal officers introduced a course of for impacted companies to request “exceptional relief” earlier than Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reached a deal on Monday that paused the tariffs for 30 days. That pause means the reduction program, in addition to retaliatory tariffs, had been additionally placed on maintain.
Whereas attitudes towards the U.S. had been extra clear, Canadians seem break up on whether or not political leaders at house will be capable to “manage” Trump. Slightly below half responded positively, whereas 38 per cent mentioned they considerably or strongly disagree.
That lack of resounding confidence displays not simply on Trudeau but additionally the Liberal management candidates vying to exchange him — in addition to Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre, whose occasion nonetheless leads in election opinion polls, however by a narrowing margin.
“At the moment, it seems that the ballot question is moving to who’s best able to deal with Canadian-American relations,” Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, informed World Information.
Simpson famous that assist for political leaders is greater in Ontario, the place provincial Progressive Conservative Occasion Chief Doug Ford is operating for re-election as premier. Ford has mentioned his snap election name was to safe a stronger mandate to guard the province from Trump’s tariff threats.
Political assist is lowest in western provinces like Alberta, which Simpson mentioned displays the continued adverse views there of the federal Liberal authorities.
“This is going to be a critical question for all of our leaders to establish themselves as the person who’s best able to deal with Donald Trump, if anybody can,” he mentioned.
These are a few of the findings of an Ipsos ballot performed between January 30 and February 3, 2025, on behalf of World Information. For this survey, a pattern of 1,000 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed on-line. Quotas and weighting had been employed to make sure that the pattern’s composition displays that of the Canadian inhabitants in line with census parameters. The precision of Ipsos on-line polls is measured utilizing a credibility interval. On this case, the ballot is correct to inside ± 3.8 proportion factors, 19 instances out of 20, had all Canadians aged 18+ been polled. The credibility interval might be wider amongst subsets of the inhabitants. All pattern surveys and polls could also be topic to different sources of error, together with, however not restricted to protection error, and measurement error.
