Most Canadians feel attached to their home, though only half trust governments: poll

Winnipeg Free Press

22-05-2025

OTTAWA – Most Canadians feel attached to their country, province and municipality but only about half of them trust their governments, a new poll suggests.
The Leger survey, which polled 1,537 Canadians between May 16 and 18, suggests that 82 per cent of Canadians feel attached to their country.
Because the poll was conducted online, it can't be assigned a margin of error.
The poll suggests that 46 per cent of Canadians feel 'very attached' to Canada, while another 36 per cent feel 'somewhat attached.' Twelve per cent feel 'not very attached.' Only four per cent said they're 'not at all attached' to Canada.
A similar percentage of those polled — 80 per cent — said they feel attached to their province. While 42 per cent said they feel 'very attached,' 38 per cent said they're 'somewhat attached' and 14 per cent are 'not very attached.'
Seventy-one per cent of Canadians feel attached to their town or city, the poll suggests. While 26 per cent said they feel 'very attached,' 45 per cent said they feel 'somewhat attached' and 21 per cent said they feel 'not very attached.'
Albertan respondents recorded the lowest percentages expressing an emotional attachment to their home, with 70 per cent citing attachment to Canada, 73 per cent to their province and 64 per cent to their municipality.
Conversely, among Ontarians, 86 per cent cited an attachment to Canada, 80 per cent to the province and 71 per cent to their municipality.
Eighty per cent of Quebecers said they were attached to their country and province, while 70 per cent said they were attached to their municipality.
The poll suggests that women are more likely than men to feel an attachment to their country, province and municipality, and older Canadians expressed more attachment than younger ones.
Almost nine in 10 people at least 55 years old were attached to Canada or their province, compared with about three in four of those 18 to 34 years old.
Liberal voters also were more likely to express attachment, with 93 per cent citing an attachment to Canada, 84 per cent to their province and 77 per cent to their country. Among Conservative voters surveyed, 75 per cent cited an attachment to Canada or their province.
Andrew Enns, Leger's executive vice-president for Central Canada, told The Canadian Press that he wasn't surprised to see a high level of attachment to Canada given the ongoing trade war with the U.S., President Donald Trump's calls for annexation and the resulting 'spike' in patriotism.
He said the generational divide could be caused by younger Canadians being 'let down' on issues that matter to them, like affordability. Enns added that there was a push among younger Canadians for 'change' and for the Conservatives in the recent election and their disappointment in the outcome may be reflected in this poll.
Despite the high levels of attachment the poll reports, only about half of respondents said they trusted their governments.
Albertans reported having the lowest levels of trust in all three levels of government, with about one-in-three trusting the federal government, compared with 60 per cent of those in Quebec, 53 per cent in British Columbia and 51 per cent in Ontario.
The numbers didn't vary as much for trust in their municipal or provincial governments.
Forty-one per cent of Albertans said they trust their municipal government, compared to 50 per cent of Ontarians, 51 per cent of people in B.C. and 56 per cent of Quebecers.
Forty-three per cent of Albertans said they trust their provincial government, compared to 44 per cent of Ontarians, 45 per cent of Quebecers and 56 per cent of people in B.C.
Trust in all levels of government was much higher among Liberals than among Conservatives. Among Liberals, 83 per cent said they trust the federal government, 64 per cent said they trust their municipal government and 55 per cent said they trust their provincial government.
Twenty-one per cent of Conservatives said they trust their federal government, 40 per cent said they trust their municipal government and 41 per cent said they trust their provincial government.
Enns said levels of trust in governments seem to have declined and that these numbers were lower than he expected.
'I think that the timing of asking the question has a bit of a bearing because it comes fairly close after a pretty hard-fought election campaign,' he said. 'It actually is a bit illustrative in terms of how the election sort of permeates out in affecting people's perspectives on different things.'
Enns pointed out that Canada had a 'pretty unpopular' prime minister in 2023 and 2024.
'It just seemed to snowball into a federal government that even when they sort of were doing some of the right things, they didn't seem to get a lot of credit, and that too just erodes the general sort of public perception of the institution,' Enns said.
Enns said the low trust levels indicate how much work Prime Minister Mark Carney has to do on 'rebuilding up some of the trust in the federal government.'
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.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 22, 2025.