An Angus Reid Institute survey has found that half (51 per cent) of surveyed Canadians say Canada should provide aid to Cuba “despite the potential of further upsetting the U.S.-Canada relationship.”
Three-in-10 (31 per cent) imagine Canada should avoid actions that will potentially further draw the ire of U.S. President Donald Trump, as “maintaining positive relations with the Trump administration must be more vital.”
Trump said he was considering a “friendly takeover” of Cuba on Feb. 27, 2026, after the U.S. blockaded the island’s foremost fuel supplier.
“The Cuban government is talking with us, and so they’re in a giant deal of trouble,” Trump said as he left the White House for a visit to Texas. “They don’t have any money. They don’t have any anything without delay, but they’re talking with us, and perhaps we’ll have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
Cuba is in the midst of a fuel shortage and humanitarian crisis, the newest in a few years of economic hardship. Trump effectively cut off oil shipments to the island by blockading Venezuela and threatening tariffs on any country that stepped in to fill the void.
‘Canadians’ awareness of the present crisis in Cuba is below average in comparison with many recent news events’
Cuba’s ambassador to Canada Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz said on Feb. 24 that the US is “suffocating a complete people.”
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“The collective punishment of a complete nation is an unjustifiable crime. One may disagree with the country’s political project, but there is no such thing as a right in any respect that justifies an amazing power — based on its economic and military might — interfering in its internal affairs, violating its independence,” Diaz said.
“Much less acceptable is a superpower attempting to attain its objectives by suffocating a complete people.”
In response, Canada sent $8 million in food aid to Cuba.
One-third (34 per cent) of surveyed Canadians imagine that’s enough support from Canada; with one-third (32 per cent) “want[ing] their country to do more to help.”
There was also one-in-five (19 per cent) who imagine Canada “must be doing lower than that or mustn’t have sent that aid in any respect.”
The survey also found that “Canadians’ awareness of the present crisis in Cuba is below average in comparison with many recent news events.”
Half of Canadians (51 per cent) say they’re following the story in Cuba “very closely” (14 per cent) or “closely” (38 per cent). One-third (36 per cent) say they’re scanning headlines.
Global Affairs Canada has warned travellers for greater than a yr of “shortages of basic necessities, including food, medicine and fuel,” across most of Cuba.
The island lost its foremost source of fuel in January when the U.S. took control of Venezuela’s oil reserves, with Washington threatening to impose tariffs on countries sending Cuba fuel.
Canadians and Americans proceed to disagree
Tensions between Canada and the U.S. have been continuing to sour with Trump’s annexation threats towards Canada and 2025 imposed tariffs.
A September 2025 Ipsos poll found that six in ten Canadians (60 per cent) say the country “can never trust the Americans the identical way again.”
Seventy-one per cent also imagine that the trade and economic disputes Canada is facing with the U.S. “will persist for several years and won’t be resolved soon.”
A February 2026 Politico poll also found that 58 per cent of Canadians surveyed said they “now not view the U.S. as a reliable ally,” with 42 per cent going as far to say that America isn’t an ally in any respect.
Forty-three per cent also said that they see the U.S. as “mostly a threat” to global stability.
-With files from Sean Boynton
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