🍁Happy Sunday morning, dear readers,
Welcome to the 338 Sunday Update.
Polls have shown that Canadians’ patience with the snail-paced progress on Canada-U.S. trade relations has been wearing thin.
Thus far, however, this growing impatience does not appear to have negatively affected perceptions of Mark Carney and his Liberal government. Polls in the coming weeks should tell us whether that needle has moved in either direction, but government approval has not suffered significantly since the trade dispute flared up again last month.
At least for now, most Canadian voters appear to be placing the blame squarely on the U.S. administration.
Last week’s timely Léger poll on Canadians’ mood regarding the negotiations — fielded before talks fell apart on Friday night — suggested that voters north of the border believed the Canadian government had not stood up strongly enough to U.S. demands.
By a margin of 25 points, Canadians said they wanted the federal government to take a harder line with the Americans and make no further concessions.
This sentiment was shared by a plurality of voters in every polling region of the country, and by a majority of supporters of all major parties.
Find the complete Léger poll here.
Escalating trade disputes are always risky endeavours for governments, regardless of political stripe. But Carney continues to benefit from a significant political advantage: Canadians’ extraordinarily poor opinion of the U.S. president. For all the frustration surrounding the negotiations, voters still appear far more inclined to blame the man across the table than the one representing Canada.
To wit: A new poll from Pollara Strategic Insights, once again fielded before last week’s drama, found that only 9% of Canadians hold a positive opinion of Donald Trump — an all-time low in Pollara’s tracking since Trump returned to the White House in January 2025.
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