This is The Week in Polling, your Saturday dose of interesting numbers from top pollsters in Canada and around the world, curated by The Hub. Here’s what we’re looking at this week.
Carney sinks while the Conservatives rise
Source: Leger
Canada’s most accurate pollster in the 2021 federal election, Leger, now has the Conservatives leading the Liberals. The Conservatives now lead the Trudeau-led Liberals by 13 percent and the (hypothetical) Carney-led Liberals by 8 percent.
Between March 4 and February 24, Liberal support dropped significantly, falling 7 percent under Carney and 5 percent under Trudeau. Meanwhile, the Conservatives gained 3 and 5 percent, respectively. The NDP saw a slight increase when facing the Trudeau Liberals, but lost one point when facing Carney.
Leger is not the only pollster picking up on the possible end of the Carney honeymoon. In a poll conducted in late February, Abacus Data also has the Conservatives leading the Liberals by 12 percent.
Meanwhile, EKOS, a pollster that predicted a voting shift towards the Liberals early on, found in a poll taken this week that the Liberals are ahead of the Conservatives by 5 percent. Ipsos found the Liberals to be ahead of the Conservatives, but only by 2 percent. These pollsters are outliers, as they are the only major ones to record a Liberal lead since Leger last did in 2023, according to 338 Canada.
The Liberal Party will elect its new leader tomorrow.
A majority of Canadians now see America as an “enemy” or “threat”
Source: Angus Reid
According to a recent Angus Reid poll, the majority of Canadians now view America as a threat or an enemy.
Between February 2023 and March 2025, Canadians’ views of America as a valued ally fell by 33 percent, while their views of America as friendly dropped by 17 percent. The share of Canadians considering America a potential threat surged 32 percent, and those seeing the country as an enemy rose 12 percent. The number of Canadians who choose to express caution increased by 5 percent.
The increase of these sentiments can be attributed to the tariffs, as well as repeated comments made by President Donald Trump calling Canada the “51st state” and referring to Trudeau as the “governor of Canada.”
President Donald Trump announced a temporary pause on some Canadian tariffs until April 2, easing a portion of his promised 25 percent levy. While this offers brief relief, the move highlights ongoing trade policy uncertainty under his administration. The pause only applies to Canadian goods covered by the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA), leaving many still subject to tariffs. Around 62 percent of Canadian exports may still face steep tariffs, reinforcing concerns about instability in Canada-U.S. trade relations.
More than half of Canadians feel angry about the tariffs, over a third feel betrayed
Source: Angus Reid
As U.S. tariffs continue to loom, most Canadians feel angry at America, while over a third feel betrayed by Canada’s largest trading partner. Meanwhile, about a quarter of Canadians feel anxious about the tariffs.
In response to the tariffs, many Canadians (66 percent) want retribution, largely through a blanket 25 per cent tariff on U.S. goods entering Canada, targeted tariffs on key U.S. imports (70 percent), and a ban on critical Canadian exports to the U.S., like crude oil, refined petroleum, and petroleum gas (65 percent). Canada’s first wave of retaliation, kicking off on March 4, involved $30 billion worth of retaliatory tariffs that have been put on goods like American appliances, footwear, orange juice, coffee, cosmetics and motorcycles. Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc wrote on his X that Canada will not proceed with their second wave of tariffs on $125 billion of U.S. goods until April 2.
Canadians feel so negatively about America lately that the country’s favourability rating is now only 4 percent ahead of China. According to Angus Reid and Pew Research, the Canadian favourability rating of the U.S. is at its lowest in at least 23 years.
In an interview with the Financial Post, Ken Mutlow, an Edmontonian shopper, said he is “[E]xtremely angry with everything to do with the U.S. these days.” He said he and his family have been “trying to buy Canadian for a while…but if it’s from the U.S., we are just not buying it.”
“We don’t want this. We want to work with you as a friend and ally, and we don’t want to see you hurt either,” said Prime Minister Trudeau in a speech this week, expressing his displeasure with the U.S. “But your government has chosen to do this to you.”
Nearly a quarter of Canadians cannot afford sufficient amounts of food
Source: Pollara
According to a Hub exclusive poll from Pollara, in partnership with Food Banks Canada, 23 percent of Canadians are unable to buy sufficient amounts of food for themselves.
As affordability worsens, Canadians have been making tough choices to keep food on the table. Forty-three percent of Canadians now buy discounted food, up seven percent from last quarter. Twenty-nine percent struggle to pay bills, a sharp 10 percent rise since October. Food insecurity is also growing, with 23 percent unable to buy enough food, a seven-point increase.
The rate of Canadians who are unable to pay their bills is higher among younger adults (37 percent), low-income earners (46 percent), visible minorities (42 percent), and those with only a high school education (36 percent). Financial strain also affects food consumption, as 23 percent report eating less overall. This jumps to 38 percent among Gen Z and 36 percent among low-income Canadians.
According to Canada’s Food Price Report 2025, the average Canadian family of four’s annual grocery bill is $16,833.67. In March 2024, the Food Banks Canada Hunger Count reported two million visitors to food banks in just that month alone—a record high. About 33 percent of those using food banks are children and 40 percent are relying on social assistance or disability payments.
Aiden Muscovitch is a student at the University of Toronto studying Ethics, Society and Law. He has served as The Hub's Assistant…
