More Canadians avoiding U.S. goods, travel amid Trump trade war: poll

Global News

a day ago

Canadian attitudes toward the United States have soured further during U.S. President Donald Trump's trade war, a new poll suggests, with a growing majority of Canadians avoiding U.S. goods and travel compared to four months ago.
The new Ipsos poll conducted exclusively for Global News, released Tuesday in time for Canada Day, found around three-quarters of Canadians surveyed say they intend to avoid travel to the U.S. — up 10 points since February — while the number of people avoiding U.S.-made goods has risen five points to 72 per cent.
Asked if they think less of the U.S. as a country because of Trump's various attacks on Canada's economy and sovereignty, 77 per cent of those polled said they agree, with nearly half saying they felt strongly. That number was also up by nine points.
'Canadian anger against Trump and the U.S. administration does not really appear to be waning,' said Kyle Braid, senior vice president of Ipsos Public Affairs.
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The poll also found Canadian pride is surging after years of declines, along with Canadians saying they plan to attend Canada Day festivities this year.
That contrasts with polling out of Gallup, released Monday ahead of July Fourth celebrations this weekend, that suggests Americans' national pride has fallen to record lows.
Poll reflects data showing falling U.S. travel, strong 'Buy Canadian' support
Statistics Canada data has shown return trips by Canadians from the U.S. have fallen by double digits in the first five months of Trump's second term. In May, the most recent month with available data, the declines were even steeper than in previous months.
A PwC Canada report released last week showed 75 per cent of Canadian consumers said they would pay more for premium or locally produced food products, but still voiced concerns about those higher costs.
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Polling finds 'Buy Canada' support remains strong
Ipsos' online poll of 1,000 Canadians across the country was conducted before Trump announced Friday he was terminating trade talks with Canada. The talks were restarted after Canada on Sunday said it would rescind a controversial digital services tax.
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Those talks had been given renewed urgency after Prime Minister Mark Carney won a minority Liberal government in April's federal election, with Carney and Trump holding direct-levels talks in addition to broader negotiations in recent weeks.
Before Trump's Friday announcement, he and Carney agreed at the G7 summit to negotiate a new trade and security agreement within 30 days.
'That's the thing about Donald Trump: he will, just when you think things have died down, surprise you and bring up new things that you hadn't thought of before,' Braid said. 'He never misses an opportunity to remind people why they're not happy with the United States right now.'
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Ipsos found Canadians' confidence in their political leaders to 'manage' Trump had risen 12 points — the largest four-month increase among all questions asked — to nearly 60 per cent.
Braid said those numbers reflect the general honeymoon period Carney's government has been in since the election.
While anger toward the U.S. was seen across all age groups surveyed, those attitudes were particularly strong among older Canadians.
'It's true also among younger folks, but to a much, much lesser degree,' Braid said.
Canadian patriotism growing after recent declines
As anti-U.S. sentiment grows, Canadian pride has only increased, Ipsos also found.
Nearly half of those surveyed, 47 per cent, said they are more likely to feel proud to be a Canadian than they were five years ago, up a whopping 31 points since last June.
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Around one-third said they were more likely to attend a Canada Day event or display a Canadian flag to mark the national holiday, with both numbers also up by double digits.
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Forty-four per cent also said they would speak positively about Canada to someone not from the country, a number that was 17 points higher than last year, while 36 per cent said they would learn more about Indigenous history in Canada, up three points.
Older Canadians also fuelled the higher numbers in support of Canada overall, while younger people were more likely to want to attend Canada Day festivities at higher numbers.
The shares of Canadians surveyed who said they were less likely to do any of those things fell by double digits across the board compared to 2024.
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Ipsos noted the higher positive sentiment generally exceeded levels observed in 2023 as well.
'For the last few years, we have seen declining pride in Canada in almost every survey we've done,' Braid said.
'Some of it's explainable: issues around reconciliation with Indigenous groups, residential schools, rising cost of living, feelings that Canada's broken, lack of opportunities for young people. I don't remember anyone prescribing that all we needed was a loudmouth bully threatening our economy and sovereignty to reignite pride and flag in country. But that's what's happened and that's how Canadian pride has been been restored.'
However, Braid noted the underlying economic concerns behind that weaker Canadian pride in years past still persists, which is reflected in the new poll.
Fifty-nine per cent of Canadians said their personal financial situation will suffer because of Trump's trade actions, and the same number said Canada should introduce a subsidy program to protect workers affected by U.S. tariffs and Canadian counter-tariffs. Both numbers are nearly unchanged from February.
—with files from Global's Touria Izri
These are some of the findings of an Ipsos poll conducted between June 17 and 20, 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.