A new poll suggests few Canadians are open to President Donald Trump’s repeated pitches for Canada to become a U.S. state, though interest in it rises among Conservative supporters and those living in Alberta.
The Leger poll, released this week, says just nine per cent of Canadians want Canada to become the 51st state, while 85 per cent do not.
The rejection appears clear across all regions, political parties and age groups.
Support for the idea is highest in Alberta, at 15 per cent, and lowest in Atlantic Canada at just three per cent, with fewer than one-in-10 people in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia wanting it.
About 18 per cent of Conservative supporters said they want Canada to become a U.S. state, while 97 per cent of Liberal and NDP voters, and 94 per cent of Bloc supporters said they would not want that.
The poll suggests a similar level of disdain among Canadians when asked if they would like to become American citizens, with 12 per cent saying yes to that question, and 82 per cent saying no.
Albertans again were most inclined to say yes to this question, at 21 per cent, and Atlantic Canadians the least, at four per cent.
The poll sampled more than 1,500 Canadian adults from Feb. 28 to March 2. Because the poll was conducted online, it can’t be assigned a margin of error.
Men were more open to the idea of becoming U.S. citizens, at 17 per cent, compared with seven per cent of women. Respondents over the age of 55 were least likely to want a U.S. citizenship, at six per cent, compared with 17 per cent of those between 18 and 34 years old and 16 per cent of respondents between 35 and 54.
Conservative respondents were much more interested in becoming American citizens (21 per cent) than Liberal and NDP respondents (5 per cent each).
Trump’s 51st state jabs began last fall shortly after he won the presidential election and have only escalated since, including as he pursues an increasingly punitive tariff agenda against Canada which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said is designed to destroy Canada’s economy to “make it easier to annex us.”
The Leger poll suggests that over three quarters of Canadians (78 per cent) have an “unfavourable” view of Trump, compared to 12 per cent who have a favourable view of the president and six per cent who say they don’t know enough about him to have an opinion.
Asked if they were in favour of the Canadian government responding with dollar-for-dollar tariffs to U.S. tariffs, 70 per cent said they were, while 18 per cent were opposed. Men (74 per cent) were more likely than women (66 per cent) to be in favour of it.
Asked about changes to their consumer behaviour over the past few weeks, with about two-thirds of respondents said they had decreased their purchases of American products in stores or online, and more than half cutting back on American fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s and Starbucks.
Just under half of respondents said they had decreased their purchases at American retail chains like Walmart and Costco.
Liberal, NDP and Bloc respondents were more likely than Conservatives to say they had changed their spending habits.
Seven in 10 respondents have increased their purchases of local Canadian products in recent weeks.
Twenty per cent of respondents who subscribe to a U.S. entertainment platform, like Netflix or Prime Video, said they had cancelled their subscription. Thirty per cent of respondents who had a trip planned to the U.S. said they cancelled it.
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.
— With files from Nick Murray and Kelly Geraldine Malone.
(This report by Catherine Morrison of The Canadian Press was first published March 8, 2025)
