A new poll out Thursday offers a striking portrait of the deterioration of relations between the US and longtime ally Canada during President Donald Trump's second term.
The survey commissioned by Politico shows that many Canadians—regardless of party affiliation—see the US under Trump as a bonafide national security threat.
Overall, the poll found 58% of Canadians don't believe the US is a reliable ally, with 42% going so far as to say the US isn't an ally of Canada at all, and 48% saying the US as an even bigger threat to world peace than Russia under President Vladimir Putin.
The dislike for Trump cuts across Canadian political divides, as 57% of Conservative voters, 77% of Liberal voters, and 84% of New Democratic voters say the US president "is actively seeking conflict with other countries unprovoked."
Finally, 57% of Canadians said that they would prefer their country be dependent upon China rather than on the US governed by Trump and his administration.
Looking forward, a 49% plurality of Canadians said that the US-Canada relationship will improve after Trump leaves office, although in a weaker state than before. Strikingly, 28% of Canadians said that the relationship between the two countries will never recover, even with Trump out of the picture.
Although Canada has historically been one of the US' closest allies, Trump has persistently antagonized the relationship since returning to office in 2025 by threatening to transform the sovereign nation of 40 million people into America's "51st state."
As the Politico report noted, this has hurt the American tourism industry, as "Canadian visits to the US have dropped significantly since Trump’s inauguration."
Data from the US Travel Association released last year showed that Canadian travel to the US experienced a 23% year-over-year drop, as roughly 4 million fewer Canadians visited the US in 2025 as in 2024, accounting for an estimated $4 billion hit to the American economy.
