Canadian pride surges in face of Trump's tariff, sovereignty threats: Leger poll

A person waves a small Canada flag during a protest of U.S. President Donald Trump and the 25 per cent tariffs applied to Canadian goods, in Vancouver, B.C., on Tuesday, March 4, 2025. (ETHAN CAIRNS/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

A new poll suggests Canadians' sense of national pride has surged in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs and threats against the country’s sovereignty.

The poll, conducted by Leger Marketing for the Association for Canadian Studies, says that the number of people saying they’re proud to be Canadian has jumped from 80 per cent in November 2024 to 86 per cent this month.

Pride is highest among people aged 55 and over — at 92 per cent — while 86 per cent of people between the ages of 35 and 54 and 75 per cent of people aged 18 to 34 said they were proud to be Canadian.

The poll sampled more than 1,500 Canadians from March 1 to March 2. Because it was conducted online, it can’t be assigned a margin of error.

National pride spiked among respondents in Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies and British Columbia.

In Quebec, the number of people expressing pride in Canada has jumped from 81 per cent to 86 per cent since November.

In Ontario, 87 per cent of respondents expressed pride in Canada, up from 80 per cent.

Expressions of pride rose from 77 per cent to 86 per cent in Manitoba and Saskatchewan and from 70 per cent to 90 per cent in British Columbia.

The poll suggests that as the percentage of Canadians voicing pride in being Canadian increased everywhere else, it fell in the Atlantic region and Alberta.

In Atlantic Canada, the number of respondents expressing pride has dropped slightly from 91 per cent to 89 per cent since November.

In Alberta, it fell from 84 per cent to 74 per cent.

The survey also found that pride in being Canadian is higher among francophones between the ages of 18 and 34 years old (80 per cent) than among anglophone youth (74 per cent).

Pride was higher among anglophones in other age categories, however; 89 per cent of anglophone Canadians aged 35 to 54 said they’re proud to be Canadian, compared to 84 per cent of francophones.

Ninety-three per cent of anglophone Canadians aged 55 and older say they’re proud to be Canadian, compared to 87 per cent of francophones.

The survey also suggests that pride in being Canadian transcends other identity markers, with 81 per cent of visible minorities, 85 per cent of immigrants and 85 per cent of Indigenous respondents saying they’re proud to be Canadian.

Jack Jedwab, president and CEO of the Metropolis Institute and the Association for Canadian Studies, said that while he’s not surprised by the numbers — given Trump’s threats to use “economic force” to make Canada a U.S. state — it’s the highest level of pride he has seen in his “decades of polling.”

Jedwab noted that Quebec is bringing the number up nationally.

“The threats with which the Trump administration has moved forward have really made Canadians think about the value of their country,” he said.

Jedwab said the common threat is creating a “powerful sense of unity.”

Moments before Mark Carney was confirmed as the new Liberal leader and prime minister-designate on Sunday, former prime minister Jean Chrétien said in a speech that Trump was uniting Canadians “as never before.”

Another poll conducted by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies that sampled more than 1,500 Canadians from March 1 to March 2 suggests that most Canadians (53 per cent) believe they have more in common with Americans than with any other people in the world.

But almost eight in 10 respondents (78 per cent) think Canadians have shared values that make them different from Americans.

Respondents cited what they saw as the key differences between the two countries.

Fifteen per cent said Canadians are more welcoming and friendly than Americans, 14 per cent said they are kind and polite, 12 per cent said they are inclusive and 12 per cent said they respect civil rights.

“I think that some of that is a function of this thing that’s coming out of the U.S. that gives the impression that we’re dealing with bullies,” said Jedwab. “And that’s not who we are.”

The polling industry’s professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2025.