“Among Conservative voters, 37 per cent oppose retaliatory tariffs, 37 per cent oppose banning critical exports to the United States and 37 per cent oppose a ban on Telsa sales.”
A News Commentary from Data Shows, a professional, non-partisan data gathering venue based in Ontario, Canada
Posted March 5th, 2025 on Niagara At Large
Trump keeps threatening to take over Canada.
Donald Trump has launched an economic war on Canadians and has pledged to annex Canada as the 51st state, but a third of Conservatives think Donald Trump is pretty darn swell, according to an Angus Reid Institute poll released this March 4th, 2025.
Among Conservatives, 32 per cent have a favourable view of the U.S. president. Only six, three, and two per cent of Liberals, New Democrats, and BQ supporters, respectively, have a favourable opinion of Trump.
Among non-Conservative Canadians, a very unfavourable view of Trump is near-unanimous, held by 89 per cent of Liberals, 94 per cent of New Democrats and 92 per cent of BQ supporters.
Views on top White House oligarch Elon Musk almost exactly echo the pattern found in favourability of the president.
Over a third of Conservatives supporters oppose economic retaliation against Trump’s attacks.
The Angus Reid polls also shows a deep divide between MAGA and mainstream Conservatives on retaliation against Trump, creating an uncomfortable situation for Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, whose party support has fallen about 10 points over the last eight weeks as Trudeau departs and Trump arrives.
Among Conservative voters, 37 per cent oppose retaliatory tariffs, 37 per cent oppose banning critical exports to the United States and 37 per cent oppose a ban on Telsa sales. Among Liberal and NDP supporters, opposition to those measures are in the teens or even single digits.
Although responses on Trump and retaliation are starkly divided between Conservative voters and others, views on what constitutes a win from this battle are very similar. For all Canadians, 61 per cent say it’ll be a win when Trump removes the 25 per cent tariffs, with only four or five per cent saying getting the tariffs lowered is a win. Many say there is no win.
Canada’s federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre
Is Poilievre the one to make the peace?
Donald Trump has shown it’s easy for any fool to start a war. It’s much more difficult to end one.
In the case of the real, hot war in Ukraine, Trump seized the opportunity to extort critical minerals from a country under Russian attack and called it a peace plan.
In Canada’s case, while thankfully no bullets are flying, Trump plays both the attacker and the extortionist. As he continues his attack and Canadians feel the pain, expect Trump to make an “extortionist’s peace offer,” which will be far less than what Canadians say is a win.
Very likely this economic war will continue past the next election and the words of leaders and the mandate from voters will be far more important than usual.
For now, Pierre Poilievre, who comes with a significant minority within his ranks who favour Trump and never wanted retaliation, looks like a bad pick to decide the peace.
View this post on the web at https://tparkin.substack.com/p/despite-attacks-and-threats-a-third
About Data Shows – Some things actually matter. And when they do, effective people use data to guide their actions and evaluate their results. Ineffective people hide the data.
Data Shows brings reliable data and data analysis from quality sources like StatsCan, Bank of Canada, CMHC, CIHI, elections commissions and others.
Data Shows’ editor is Tom Parkin. Contact me with interesting data, data chart or a guest piece you’d like to submit to Data Shows: tparkin@impact-strategies.ca
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