The latest release from the Public Monitor features our findings on the Carney government’s first budget. The survey followed close on the heels of the budget passage. The Public Monitor is monthly public opinion omnibus that regularly tracks key metrics on economic confidence and the financial well-being of Canadians.
The key highlights in this release include:
- Canadians are not impressed with the Carney government's first budget.
- They feel it benefits large corporations and wealthy Canadians but not main street.
- Some budget measures are deeply unpopular.
A more detailed presentation is in the report, including additional findings, tracking results and data tables.
A plurality of Canadians rate the 2025 budget negatively, resulting in a net negative rating of minus six points
The first Carney budget received positive ratings from only just over one-third.
Canadians see large corporations and the wealthy as the chief beneficiaries of Carney’s first budget
In part, this helps to explain its overall negative reception.
Some measures in the budget are deeply unpopular, particularly those entailing tax cuts for the wealthy, social spending freezes
A majority also opposes decreased spending on environmental oversight.
- The only strongly popular budget measures are those increasing infrastructure spending and addressing youth unemployment.
Discussion
The Carney government’s first budget, narrowly passed on November 4, has been met with an at best tepid response from Canadians. In the short-term, it has done nothing to boost Canadians’ confidence in the economy or their sense of financial well-being.
In fact, many of the measures which will hit Canadians hardest are deeply unpopular – notably, freezing spending on dental care, pharmacare and childcare. Even more unpopular are tax cuts to corporations and expensive luxury items. It is no surprise, given these measures, that Canadians see large corporations and wealthy Canadians as the chief beneficiaries of this budget.
Oddly, in this context Canadians have taken a more favourable view of the direction of the country (see report). When this metric was in worse shape back in the summer of 2024, we asked for reasons from those who said the country was moving in the wrong direction – and a large number cited the Trudeau government.
Methodology
The Public Monitor is powered by the Modalis Public Opinion Panel – one of Canada’s only fully probability-based research panels.
The survey was conducted online using both email and SMS invitations/reminders, and completed via desktops, laptops, tablets and mobile devices. A total of 1,207 responses were gathered from Canadian adults. As Modalis is 100% recruited using RDD probability-based telephone sampling, it is statistically valid to calculate the margin of error – it is plus or minus 2.83% at a 95% confidence interval.
The survey was conducted from November 6 to 16, 2025. We run surveys at the optimal timeframe for online surveys (~ two weeks) to mitigate the early response bias of quick turnaround surveys.
The data have been weighted by age, gender, region and education using the latest Census population data from Statistics Canada.
The Public Monitor
The Public Monitor is a monthly omnibus survey ideally suited for discerning clients who need a cost-effective solution to their public opinion research needs without compromising quality.
The Monitor is powered by the Modalis Public Opinion Panel – one of Canada’s only fully probability-based research panels. There is no need to compromise data quality when using an omnibus.
