As U.S. President Donald Trump pursues his global trade war and talk of annexation, a brand new poll suggests the share of Canadians who view the USA as a top threat has tripled since 2019.
While this 12 months’s survey by the Pew Research Center suggests that 55 per cent of Canadians still say the U.S. stays this country’s most significant ally, it also says that 59 per cent now see the U.S. as a threat — up from 20 per cent within the 2019 poll.
“Canada kind of stands out as one place where views of the U.S. have modified significantly and substantially,” said Janell Fetterolf, a senior researcher on the centre.
Pew polled people in 25 countries and the USA was cited as a very powerful ally in 12. It was essentially the most commonly named threat in eight countries — including America’s closest neighbours, Canada and Mexico.
Canada was an early goal of Trump’s tariffs and taunts. He repeatedly called former prime minister Justin Trudeau “governor” and said he desired to make Canada a U.S. state.
Trump hit Canada and Mexico with duties he linked to fentanyl trafficking in March, only to walk back the tariffs for goods that comply with the Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement on trade a number of days later.
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Each countries are also being targeted by Trump’s tariffs on steel, aluminum and automobiles.
The Pew Research Center said many individuals polled in Europe named Russia as a top threat, while China was more commonly named amongst those within the Asia-Pacific region.
Poll respondents were more more likely to name the USA as an economic threat, while Russia was more more likely to be considered a threat to national security and China was commonly cited as a combination of each.
But not less than half of the people polled in Mexico, France and Canada who said the USA was a threat also said the U.S. posed “an important deal of a threat” to national security.
In Canada, roughly three-quarters of adults said the U.S. poses an economic threat and 53 per cent said it poses a national security threat.
Pew, a Washington-based non-partisan think tank, surveyed 28,333 adults across 24 countries — not including the USA — from Jan. 8 to April 26 by phone, online and in person.
The centre also surveyed 3,605 Americans from March 24 to March 30 by phone, online and in person.
Israelis were particularly more likely to name the U.S. as their country’s most significant ally. Israelis also stood out for his or her particularly positive rankings of the U.S. and its president. Most Israelis polled named Iran as the highest threat.
Japanese and South Koreans polled also overwhelmingly stated that the U.S. was their most significant ally.
Despite Canadians’ increasingly negative views of the U.S., Americans remain positive about Canada. Fetterolf said Canada is one in every of the allies mostly named by Americans, just behind the UK.
She said a poll earlier this 12 months suggested 74 per cent of Americans have a favourable opinion of Canada.
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