A recent survey indicates that over a quarter of Canadians—27 percent—now perceive the United States as an “enemy” nation, while an additional 30 percent still regard the U.S. as an ally. Furthermore, another 27 percent of participants in the Leger poll classified the United States as a “neutral” country.
This survey emerges in the context of U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to impose economically harmful tariffs on Canada, alongside his repeated suggestions that Canada should consider becoming a U.S. state.
Conducted between February 14 and February 17, the poll included responses from 1,500 Canadians and 1,000 Americans. Due to its online nature, a margin of error cannot be determined.
Sébastien Dallaire, Leger’s executive vice-president for Eastern Canada, expressed surprise at the division among Canadians, noting that the United States has historically been a strong ally. He remarked that the term “enemy” carries significant weight.
Dallaire commented, “The responses reflect the current level of animosity felt in Canada, which is contributing to a broader rally-around-the-flag sentiment across various aspects of our lives.”
In contrast, only 1 percent of Americans identified Canada as an enemy, with 56 percent viewing Canada as an ally.
A significant majority of Canadians hold a negative opinion of Trump; 74 percent of respondents expressed an unfavorable view of the U.S. president. Dallaire noted that it is challenging to achieve more unanimous results on such questions.
Seven percent of Americans indicated they lacked sufficient knowledge about Trump to form an opinion, while only 13 percent overall expressed a favorable view of him. This approval rating is notably higher among Conservative party supporters, with 27 percent expressing a favorable opinion of Trump, compared to just 5 percent and 7 percent among Liberal and NDP supporters, respectively.
Conservatives were also more likely to have a positive view of the US — 48 per cent of Conservative supporters surveyed described it as an ally, while only 18 per cent called it an enemy state.
Just 20 per cent of Liberals and 21 per cent of NDP supporters said the U.S. was an ally, while 37 per cent of Liberal supporters and 34 per cent of New Democrats said it was an enemy. Nearly half of Bloc Québécois voters — 47 per cent — said the United States is an enemy country.
“There is a partisan difference in terms of how people feel about this,” Dallaire said. “It’s clearly a pretty big gap between Conservative supporters and Liberal, NDP and Bloc supporters.”