{"id":36055,"date":"2026-05-07T19:19:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:19:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/36055\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T19:19:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T19:19:38","slug":"poll-finds-americans-see-canada-as-more-reliable-than-trump-on-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/36055\/","title":{"rendered":"Poll finds Americans see Canada as more reliable than Trump on trade"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Canadian affection for America has dipped to new lows thanks to U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s fiery rhetoric and aggressive tariff policies, leading to fewer trips south of the border<\/a> and a strong Buy Canadian campaign<\/a> amid intensifying anti\u2011American sentiment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But have long-held positive American views of Canada changed?<\/p>\n

According to a new Leger survey<\/a>, 57 per cent of Americans trust Canada to negotiate in trade talks in good faith, while only 42 per cent trust the Trump administration to do the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This suggests Americans trust Canada more than their own government on trade. But does this trust gap tell us more about Canada\u2019s standing in Americans\u2019 minds, or about how politically exposed the U.S. administration is on trade?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a combination, to be honest,\u201d said Andrew Enns, executive vice-president of Leger\u2019s Central Canada operations. \u201cYou have to look at the hyper-partisanship in the U.S. There\u2019s probably 20 per cent of Democratic voters who wouldn\u2019t trust Donald Trump on any question, so he starts at a bit of a handicap.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you also have to factor in that some of the president\u2019s moves have been unpredictable \u2026 and that is starting to weigh a bit with respect to trust in the administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trade link is interesting, given that Canada and the US are supposed to engage soon in talks about the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) this summer. Could this favourable judgment by Americans signal any leverage for Ottawa in upcoming negotiations?<\/p>\n

Andrew Hale, fellow at Washington-based Advancing American Freedom, argues that trusting Canada more in trade talks is a judgment on Trump \u2014 a reflection that many Americans are fed up with his erratic behaviour and his use of trade tools to settle political vendettas.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are fatigued by Trump\u2019s tariff policies,\u201d Hale said. \u201cBusinesses want to be able to make business plans. Banks want to be able to have long\u2011term investment plans.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while the numbers signal that the White House is seen as unreliable, they do not mean Canada suddenly has won a great deal of goodwill, he explained.<\/p>\n

Eric Miller, president of Rideau Potomac Strategy Group, a trade consultancy, agrees and said such views will have little effect on any trade negotiations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican trade policy today is about one person, and that\u2019s Donald Trump \u2026 If Democrats trust Canada more than the U.S., (the White House) will view that as the problem being with their fellow Americans rather than as a pressure point for shaping their conduct in negotiations.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, the Leger data may say more about the power of U.S. partisan politics and fiery presidential rhetoric, Miller said, noting that other recent research suggests Americans\u2019 favourable views<\/a> of Canada have dropped to a new low.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a meaningful segment of the electorate that now is effectively skeptical of Canada, and that\u2019s not something that Canada has dealt with before,\u201d Miller added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A similar Leger poll, for instance, wouldn\u2019t have been needed in years past as skepticism of America\u2019s northern neighbour would\u2019ve been less pronounced.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrior to Trump \u2026 the very fact of a possible conflict with Canada was risible,\u201d explained Miller. \u201cI mean, this is why Weird Al Yankovic did a song called \u2018Canadian Idiot,\u2019\u201d and why absurdities about a Canadian invasion are so common in U.S. satire.<\/p>\n

What leaders say matters. When Trump criticizes Canada, it influences how his base sees the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Frank Graves, founder of Ottawa-based EKOS research, agrees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attitudes, while favourable, are dramatically less favourable than they were four years ago \u2026 Canada\u2019s reputation has been tarnished by the disputes between Canada and the United States on trade and tariffs and other issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enns pointed to the power of the president\u2019s rhetoric.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe relentless messaging \u2026 \u2018They\u2019re not good people to trade with. They are not good people. They have really bad banking policies.\u2019 \u2026 Whether or not Americans listen to every single one, the endless stream of it \u2026 has had an impact,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump saying things like he \u201cdoesn\u2019t care about Canada\u201d and US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying \u201cThey suck!\u201d about Canadian trade negotiators have caused \u201clasting damage,\u201d said Hale.<\/p>\n

The survey, however, also noted that only 15 per cent of Americans saw Canada as a close ally, while another 25 per cent saw it as a friendly partner that generally shares U.S. interests. So why the asymmetry between trade trust and a poor sense of allyship?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a reflection of gross ignorance,\u201d said Hale. \u201cMost Americans could not identify Ottawa as the capital of Canada \u2026 There\u2019s just basic facts about Canada they are unaware of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Americans know very little about Canada and generally look inward at their large country, rather than outward at the world, he explained. The majority of Canadians, meanwhile, live within 100 miles of the U.S. border, watch American news, and understand U.S. history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While Americans look inward, Canada is a \u201ccountry with a smaller population looking outward at the world and looking down at the United States,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But having a meaningful segment of Americans be skeptical toward Canada is something Ottawa has never had to manage before \u2014 and it\u2019s a problem that Canadians will need to address, said Miller.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s a milestone of some of the harm that\u2019s been done from 15 or 18 months of President Trump\u2019s statements on Canada,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s time to start thinking about the future and where all of this goes in a different political context, a kind of post\u2011Trump context.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hale says the Liberal Party should start by weaponizing anti-American sentiment less for electoral benefit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that is not in the national interest of Canada either, because, at the end of the day, they should want to have good relations with the United States, and they do have to deal with President Trump for the next almost three years that he remains in office.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would behoove them not to behave so cynically on the domestic electoral front\u201d and to take a longer-term approach to US-American relations, he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

National Post<\/p>\n

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com<\/a> and sign up for our newsletters here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Canadian affection for America has dipped to new lows thanks to U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[15771,15769,17,5110,162,15770,6951,4780,1182],"class_list":{"0":"post-36055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-americans-trust","9":"tag-andrew-hale","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-central-canada","12":"tag-donald-trump","13":"tag-eric-miller","14":"tag-trade-negotiations","15":"tag-trade-talks","16":"tag-white-house"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}