A majority of Canadians give U.S. President Donald Trump a failing grade for the first year of his second term in office, according to a new Angus Reid poll.
Trump began his term with “51st state” rhetoric and talk of annexing Canada while also increasing tariffs that threatened economic ruin. As per the poll conducted after Prime Minister Carney’s speech in Davos, Canadians aren’t taking kindly to the disruption.
Sixty-six per cent of Canadians say they would give Trump an ‘F’ for his first year in office while 15 per cent would give him an ‘A’ or ‘B’. Of that 15 per cent, a majority voted Conservative in last year’s federal election — half of CPC voters gave Trump a ‘C’ or better.
When asked to describe Trump’s first year back in the White House, Canadians chose markedly unflattering words. Thirty-six percent picked ‘corrupt,’ 24 per cent went with ‘chaotic,’ and 24 per cent said ‘incompetent’. Other words include disruptive, reckless and terrible. Six per cent chose ‘bold’ and four per cent said ‘transformational.’ Only one per cent chose ‘great,’ with Conservative voters more likely to choose more positive words.
Overall, four out of five Canadians feel more fearful than hopeful about the year ahead with Trump in office. When Americans were asked the same question, they are twice as likely to be hopeful than Canadians, but the scales are tilted more towards fear than hope.
When it comes to Prime Minister Carney and Trump, 59 per cent of Canadians believe he is handling Trump well. Thirty-one per cent believe the PM is doing a poor or terrible job, a majority of whom voted Conservative. Ninety-two per cent of Liberal voters say he is doing a good or great job and a majority of NDP and Bloc Quebecois voters feel the same way.
Among its other key findings, the poll found that three in five Canadians (61 per cent) say they have been following more U.S. news than usual over the past year and 57 per cent say they’ve also been following international events more closely. In addition, around half of Canadians (47 per cent) feel the forced regime change in Venezuela, precipitated by the U.S. military’s capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, is bad for Canada’s oil and gas industry.
More than half of Canadians (53 per cent) also say they oppose U.S. actions in Venezuela, while 31 per cent say they support them.
According to the poll, Canadians also expect that “the U.S. will use military force to insert themselves in other country’s politics again down the road.” Seventy-four per cent feel more regime-change operations will be conducted by the U.S. whereas only eight per cent feel Venezuela was an isolated incident.
Methodology:
The Angus Reid Institute conducted an online survey from Jan. 23 – 27, 2026, among a randomized sample of 1,612 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum. The sample was weighted to be representative of adults nationwide according to region, gender, age, household income, and education, based on the Canadian census. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
