The most recent edition of the Public Monitor features Canadians’ views on the Carney government.
The key highlights in this release include:
- Canadians are divided on the Carney government's core mandate to stand up against Trump.
- There are key dividing lines on this issue - education, age and voting intention.
- Similar trends are found with other results on the Carney government (see report)
A more detailed presentation is in the report, including additional findings about the Carney government and data tables.
While a majority rate the government positively on standing up to Trump, a large minority is in the negative.
There are few fence-sitters when it comes to dealing with Trump’s threats.
- Results vary greatly by party support.
Across demographics, education and age show the strongest differences.
- Positive ratings generally increase with age.
- There are strong differences in ratings between those having and those who do not have university degrees.
Discussion
As many observers noted after the 2025 election, Mark Carney and the Liberals ran on a campaign of standing up to Trump – elbows up, Canada strong. A little over a year into their mandate, Canadians are somewhat mixed in how they view the Carney government’s performance on its core mandate.
As negotiations continue to hit rough seas, how long will Canadians extend their patience? The large minority that views the Liberals negatively on this important front may soon reach majority territory. We will continue to monitor this situation.
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 1,646 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 2.4% at a 95% confidence interval.
The survey was conducted from August 10 to 23, 2026. We run surveys at the optimal timeframe for online surveys (~two weeks) to mitigate the 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.
