Strong support for Canada axing U.S. trade talks, retaliatory tariffs: poll

Strong majorities of Canadians support the federal government walking away from U.S. trade talks and hitting back with retaliatory tariffs , a new poll suggests, which is translating to persistent support for Prime Minister Mark Carney and the Liberals.

However, the Ipsos polling conducted exclusively for Global News and released Saturday also shows that support varies by age, with fewer Generation Z and Millennial adults backing the Liberals and their approach to the growing U.S. trade war.

“These people are living in what we like to call ‘the endurance economy’: they’re just getting by from day to day, and they’re enduring economic life right now,” said Darrell Bricker, chairman of Ipsos Canada.

“I think one of the takeaways here is that while Canadians are generally supportive of the idea of pushing back hard on the United States … if any of those things could bring a personal risk, if you’re somebody who’s living in that endurance economy, you’re less likely to support it.”

The poll found 63 per cent of Canadians surveyed feel Canada was right to stand firm in the trade negotiations, “even if it meant higher costs and job losses,” while just 18 per cent said Canada should have made additional sacrifices to get a deal.

An even larger majority, 73 per cent, said they back Ottawa’s “dollar for dollar” counter-tariffs on $28 billion worth of U.S. goods, matching the up to 50 per cent tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump last week after trade talks collapsed.

But those numbers fall to 48 per cent of Gen Z adults and 57 per cent of Millennials who support Canada standing firm, and 59 per cent of Millennials who were happy to see Canada’s retaliatory tariffs. By comparison, about 80 per cent of elderly boomers supported both of those positions.

Bricker said the disparity points to economic realities for those different age groups.

“The people who were the ‘elbows up’ crowd in the last election campaign, who voted for the Liberals and continue to vote for the Liberals, they’re older, they’re more economically established, they tend to have higher degrees of education, they tend be more affluent,” Bricker said.

“So as a result of that, there’s less risk for them. So they can be all ‘elbows up,’ but it doesn’t cost them as much as it’s going to cost the other people they’re asking to have their elbows up.”

The age gap also extends to who Canadians said they would vote for if an election were to be held tomorrow.

While the Liberals maintain a healthy lead of 44 per cent support overall among those surveyed, compared to 33 per cent for the Conservatives, 40 per cent of Millennials chose the Conservatives over the Liberals, who see just 30 per cent support in that age group.

The Liberals’ support is down by just one point since April, while the Conservatives saw no change. The NDP at 10 per cent and the Bloc Quebecois at eight per cent nationally are each up one point since April.

“I have not in my consciousness recalled as tumultuous a week, or couple of weeks, or couple of months, in Canadian politics since probably 1995, when we went through the sovereignty referendum,” Bricker said.