A strong majority of Canadians feel that U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff actions against Canada will have a negative impact on their personal finances, and they want to see the federal government support workers who are impacted, a new survey suggests.
More than three quarters (76 per cent) of Canadians think Trump’s tariff actions against Canada will have a negative or somewhat negative impact on their finances, according to the survey, conducted by Nanos Research for CTV News and the Globe and Mail.
The survey was conducted April 8 to 10 and reached out to 1,233 Canadians of voting age across the country by phone and through an online survey. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
While there were some differences by region, age and voting intention, the viewpoint appears to cut across political lines.
NDP voters felt most strongly that their personal finances would be negatively or somewhat negatively impacted (85 per cent), while 80 per cent of Liberal voters felt the same way.
While the numbers were lower among Conservative voters (67.6 per cent) and Bloc voters (76.4 per cent), a majority still felt their finances would be negatively impacted.
Nik Nanos, chief data scientist at Nanos Research, said that while there is concern among all demographics, seniors appear to be most concerned.
“While a majority of Canadians across all regions and age groups say Trump’s tariff actions against Canada will have a negative or somewhat negative impact on their personal finances, respondents aged 55 and over are most likely to say the tariffs will have an outright negative impact on their finances (59 per cent),” Nanos said.
When it comes to the government helping workers who are impacted by the tariffs, nearly two-thirds of respondents (65 per cent) support or someone support the idea. That’s more than double the number (25 per cent) who opposed or somewhat opposed the idea.
Out on the campaign trail, the parties have been vowing to introduce programs to help workers affected by the tariffs.
The Liberals have promised a $2 billion fund to bolster the auto sector, as well as shorter waiting periods for employment insurance, and tax deferrals for affected companies. The Conservatives have pledged to set up a $3-billion fund to loan money to businesses hit by tariffs in order to keep workers employed.
Meanwhile the NDP has said they would give all money collected from counter-tariffs to workers and communities hit the hardest by the U.S. trade war, and introduce an “emergency price cap” on basic food items.
Canadians favour energy pipeline, but split on cutting carbon price for big emitters
Capitalizing on Canada’s resources by getting essential minerals and energy to other markets has been another theme on the campaign trail in light of the tariff threats.
The survey found that nearly three-quarters of Canadians (73 per cent) support or somewhat support the idea of building an east-west pipeline for oil and liquefied natural gas, with facilities on both coasts.
However there were strong regional differences. Those in the Prairies (88 per cent) were far more supportive of the idea than Quebec residents (49 per cent), while residents in Ontario (77 per cent), B.C. (76 per cent) and the Atlantic provinces (83 per cent) were somewhere in-between.
Seniors (78 per cent) and Conservative voters (88 per cent) were most likely to favour the idea, while voters aged 18 to 34 (65 per cent) and Bloc voters (32 per cent) were least supportive.
While the survey found strong support for an east-west pipeline, voters were more split when it came to the idea of removing the carbon price on large industrial emitters of greenhouse gases.
Just before the campaign kicked off, the Liberals axed the consumer-facing carbon tax, but the industrial carbon tax remains in place.
About 49 per cent of respondents said that they oppose or somewhat oppose the idea of removing the carbon price for large greenhouse gas emitters. That compared with 39 per cent who said they supported or somewhat supported the idea and 12 per cent who said they weren’t sure.
The idea once again found the most support in the Prairies (46 per cent) and the least in Quebec (30 per cent).
NDP voters (75 per cent) were most likely to oppose or somewhat oppose removing the carbon tax for large emitters, while Conservatives (27 per cent) were least likely to oppose it. Among Liberal voters, 64 per cent opposed or somewhat opposed the idea.
