Nearly 70% of Canadians think less of U.S. due to Trump tariffs: Ipsos – National

U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff threats and talk about making Canada the 51st state have made Canadians angry — very angry.

A new poll by Ipsos for Global News found a whopping 68 per cent of Canadians surveyed think less of the United States as a country, after Trump threatened Canada’s economy with 25 per cent tariffs that were meant to go into effect this week, before being paused.

Nearly half of all respondents, 46 per cent, said they strongly held that negative perception.

“What surprised me is the intensity of the responses,” said Sean Simpson, senior vice president of Ipsos Public Affairs.

The high number of people voicing strong opinions, he said, 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.”

According to the poll, two-thirds of Canadians say they will be avoiding purchasing U.S.-made goods moving forward, as a “Buy Canadian” movement grows in response to Trump’s economic threats.

A similar number said they would also avoid travel to the U.S., with 45 per cent saying they felt strongly about their decision.

Simpson said the anger toward the U.S. was strongest among respondents aged 55 and over who have a deeper historical understanding of the bilateral relationship, after watching past U.S. presidents work well with Canada.

“All of those conventions are laying in shambles at the feet of Donald Trump,” he said. “And so older Canadians are saying, ‘My gosh, what is going on here?’”

He pointed out that older Canadians are also more likely to be snowbirds that live in the U.S. part-time, making their decision to cancel travel south of the border notable.

The poll also spoke to the economic insecurity Trump’s threats have created among Canadians. Nearly 60 per cent of those surveyed said their own personal financial situation would suffer due to Trump’s actions.

Sixty per cent said they want the federal government to create a “major” subsidy program, similar to the ones launched during the COVID-19 pandemic, to support workers affected by U.S. tariffs and retaliatory actions from Canada.

Federal officials announced a process for impacted businesses to request “exceptional relief” before Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reached a deal on Monday that paused the tariffs for 30 days. That pause means the relief program, as well as retaliatory tariffs, were also put on hold.

While attitudes toward the U.S. were more clear, Canadians appear split on whether political leaders at home will be able to “manage” Trump. Just under half responded positively, while 38 per cent said they somewhat or strongly disagree.

That lack of resounding confidence reflects not just on Trudeau but also the Liberal leadership candidates vying to replace him — as well as Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, whose party still leads in election opinion polls, but 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, told Global News.

Simpson noted that support for political leaders is higher in Ontario, where provincial Progressive Conservative Party Leader Doug Ford is running for re-election as premier. Ford has said his snap election call was to secure a stronger mandate to protect the province from Trump’s tariff threats.

Political support is lowest in western provinces like Alberta, which Simpson said reflects the continued negative views there of the federal Liberal government.

“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 said.

These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between January 30 and February 3, 2025, on behalf of Global News. For this survey, a sample of 1,000 Canadians aged 18+ was interviewed online. Quotas and weighting were employed to ensure that the sample’s composition reflects that of the Canadian population according to census parameters. The precision of Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll is accurate to within ± 3.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, had all Canadians aged 18+ been polled. The credibility interval will be wider among subsets of the population. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error, and measurement error.

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