Canada's youngest adults more likely to trust Iran and its current regime: poll

National Post

24-06-2025

As tensions returned to a simmer between Israel and Iran amidst a ceasefire agreement, a new poll conducted before the shaky armistice found that far more Canadians are distrustful of Iran than those who have faith in the Islamic Republic.
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But data from a Leger Marketing poll for the Association for Canadian Studies poll showed that younger generations are more apt to trust Iran and think it wouldn't be good for the regime of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to collapse and be replaced by new leadership.
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The polling also attempted to gauge whether respondents 'think that Iran wants the destruction of the State of Israel,' with 71 per cent believing that to be the goal, and even 59 per cent of the 18-24 cohort.
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Jack Jedwab, the Association's president and CEO, said that despite the younger generations' different perceptions of the conflict, it points to Canadian public opinion being closely aligned with that of the U.S. and NATO.
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'That's not speaking to what actions the U.S. has taken in the past four or five days. I'm just talking strictly in terms of the perception of Iran and Iran's position in these global conflicts.'
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Carney, who'd previously reaffirmed that Canada respected Israel's right to defend itself against Iran as hostilities began in mid-June, said after U.S. airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear sites over the weekend that Canada also stands against Iran developing a nuclear weapon and called for a diplomatic resolution to the unrest in the broader Middle East.
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Overall, ACS found that only 12 per cent of all respondents see Iran as trustworthy, compared to 52 per cent who felt it wasn't. Trust was highest among the 18-24 group (34 per cent) and decreasingly lower across each age group, culminating with a mere 4 per cent of those over 65.
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'There seems to be some very important differences in the world vision or the way in which the younger cohorts have a different view of the nature of these conflicts and how they position the protagonist,' said Jedwab, noting that data extrapolated from the employment status showed students (27 per cent) were also more apt to trust in Iran than any other age group.