How Trump’s threats could also help Carney
The pressure and rhetoric from the U.S. could actually work in Carney’s favor, experts tell TIME.
“The effect of Trump’s comments has been unifying,” says Turnbull. Despite discussions of independence in Alberta and Quebec, she says “there isn’t widespread panic that the country is coming apart.”
In fact, research conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research in 2025 found that “in almost every province, the proportion of residents who are very attached to Canada is greater than the proportion who are very attached to their province.”
Between Trudeau’s resignation on Jan. 6, 2025, and a federal election in Canada months later on April 28, Carney’s Liberal Party went from 20% to 42.8% in the polls, according to CBC, with Carney’s message of defiance in the face of Trump proving to be a rallying point.
This falls in line with depleting favorable views of the U.S. among Canadians. In July, 44% of Canadians had a favorable opinion of China compared to 33% of Canadians who held the same view of the U.S., according to a Pew Research Center survey. “When China is more popular than the U.S. in a country like Canada, you have to ask yourself: ‘What’s going on?’” says Leblond.
Source: time.com
