The latest release from the Public Monitor features our regular monitoring of economic confidence and financial well-being. The survey followed close on the heels of the budget passage and also contained questions on the budget. 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:
- Economic confidence has dropped sharply following the budget.
- Younger Canadians are deeply offside on the economy.
- Household financial well-being has also declined.
A more detailed presentation is in the report, including additional findings and data tables.
Public confidence in the economy has dropped to its lowest level since 2022 – almost two-thirds rate the economy negatively
Economic confidence is now deeply in the red as just a small minority rate the economy positively.
Younger Canadians are deeply offside on the economy
Additionally, middle income households express higher economic confidence than either low or high income.
Canadians’ sense of financial well-being has also declined, as fewer than half rate their household finances favourably
Net sentiment is now only marginally better than our worst reading in July 2023.
Discussion
Following the Carney government’s first budget, Canadians economic confidence and financial well-being have seen notable declines. It is difficult to say what impact the budget itself has played in any of this. Although inflation has pulled back greatly from recent peaks, core items such as groceries continue to hover around the 5% annualized rate.
While the budget announced measures for youth employment, younger Canadian adults (under 35 years of age) remain deeply offside economically. Investments in Canada Summer Jobs and Student Work Placement Programs will do little for much of this age cohort.
In an environment where well below half the population is happy about their household finances, governments face an uphill battle. Taxing an axe to programs that help the most economically vulnerable is probably not a good recipe.
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.
