76% of Canadians support walking away from U.S. trade talks, poll shows

Three-in-four Canadians back Prime Minister Mark Carney's decision to walk away from trade negotiations with the United States, according to a new Angus Reid Institute poll — even as one-in-eight workers express serious concern about their own jobs.

The poll, conducted August 22–23, found 76 per cent believe Canada did the right thing by rejecting what Carney said were unfair last-minute demands from the Trump administration, including changes to auto tariffs, restrictions on future Canadian trade deals, and efforts to limit Canada's protections of language, culture, and sovereignty.

Support for Ottawa's stance holds across every province, bottoming out at 65 per cent in Saskatchewan and 67 per cent in Alberta. Even half (53 per cent) of those who voted Conservative in the 2025 federal election say walking away was the right call rather than accepting a bad deal.

Canadians are also broadly backing Carney's threat of dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs. Three-in-five (62 per cent) say Canada's counter-tariffs — set to begin September 8 — are "about right under the circumstances."

But the trade war is taking a psychological toll. Thirteen per cent of Canadian workers say they are "very" concerned about losing their own job, with a further 25 per cent expressing some level of anxiety over job security. That's roughly two-in-five workers worried about employment.

Yet most (64 per cent) still believe Canada will emerge stronger in the long run as the country reduces its dependence on the U.S. One-quarter (26 per cent) disagree, worrying it will be difficult to overcome damage to Canada's relationship with its most important trading partner.

When CityNews asked people outside Toronto's Union Station how they felt, responses ranged from defiant to resigned. One person said: "We should not bow down to Trump's bullying — we should stay strong." Another remarked: "I think we did the right thing. It's very sad that it crumbled, but it's typical of the person you're dealing with in Washington, who you can't trust from one day to the next." One woman said she'd even accept higher prices on local products: "I'd rather pay more for something Canadian than give my money to someone south of the border."