1) Poll suggests 40% of Canadians fear losing their jobs due to Trump’s tariffs

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Catherine Morrison,  March 13, 2025

A poll suggests that 40 per cent of Canadians are worried about losing their jobs as many businesses scale back hiring plans in response to the trade war with the United States.

The Leger poll, which sampled more than 1,500 Canadian adults from March 7 to March 10, suggests that more than half of workers in Ontario were concerned about job security, the highest in the country, while just under one in four in Atlantic Canada said they were worried.

Thirty-nine per cent of people in British Columbia and in Manitoba/Saskatchewan reported they’re worried about losing their jobs, compared to 35 per cent of people in Alberta and 26 per cent of people in Quebec.

Because the poll was conducted online, it can’t be assigned a margin of error.

The poll shows male respondents were more concerned about unemployment than women, with 44 per cent of men worried compared with 36 per cent of women. Respondents between 18 and 54 were more worried than those over the age of 55, at 42 per cent compared with 34 per cent.

The trend line on Canadians’ job loss anxiety has gone up and down in Leger polls since the beginning of the year, beginning with a low of 36 per cent in the week of Jan. 26 and hitting a high of 42 per cent in the week of Feb. 25.

The latest Leger poll says that while 61 per cent of respondents described their household’s finances as “good,” 46 per cent said they’re living paycheque to paycheque.

Andrew Enns, executive vice-president of Central Canada for Leger, said widespread fear of unemployment is bad for the economy because that fear leads people to delay purchases.

Enns said Ontario probably polled the highest level of concern because the recent provincial election involved a lot of dire warnings from provincial politicians about the likely impact of Trump’s tariffs on employment.

Enns said that what stood out for him in the data was the increase in the number of people saying they’re “very” concerned about their jobs.

A Leger poll conducted over the week of March 3 found 39 per cent of respondents were concerned about losing their jobs, with 11 per cent of those people saying they were “very” concerned.

In the most recent poll, 15 per cent of the respondents who said they were concerned about unemployment indicated they were “very” concerned about losing their jobs.

Enns said that if companies make significant layoffs because of the tariffs, that could show up in the polling data in the coming weeks.

New Bank of Canada data suggests that 40 per cent of businesses are scaling back their hiring and investment plans in response to heightened trade uncertainty.

Markets have been in a tailspin since U.S. President Donald Trump began to put in place his massive tariff agenda. On Wednesday, Trump’s administration hit all countries, including Canada, with 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminum imports into the United States.

The Bank of Canada data, which is based on surveys of businesses and consumers conducted from Jan. 29 to Feb. 28, 2025, found that job security concerns are more common among people working in industries that rely on exports to the U.S.

Respondents to the Bank of Canada survey were asked how they think their job security would be affected if trade relations between Canada and the U.S. were to deteriorate.

Almost three in four workers from the mining, oil and gas industries told the Bank of Canada survey they were worried about their jobs, and three in five who work in manufacturing. Just under half of those in finance, insurance, real estate and leasing, agriculture and forestry said they were concerned.

Bea Bruske, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, said she has heard from workers who are thinking of selling their homes and about “pockets of layoffs” happening across the country, including at Algoma Steel in Sault Ste. Marie.

“Although the numbers so far have been fairly small in the various different areas, employers have served unions notice that they are worried about what the future holds, and that layoffs may be in the offing,” she said. “Employers themselves are also uncertain.”

Bruske said it’s also troubling that some businesses, primarily in manufacturing, aren’t getting as many orders as usual from U.S. clients.

“People are very worried about what their job reality is going to be,” she said, adding that she expects to see more layoffs if tariffs continue.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

2) Large majority of Canadians reject Trump’s annexation overtures, poll suggests

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Catherine Morrison, March 8, 2025

A new poll suggests few Canadians are open to President Donald Trump’s repeated pitches for Canada to become a U.S. state, though interest in it rises among Conservative supporters and those living in Alberta.

The Leger poll, released this week, says just nine per cent of Canadians want Canada to become the 51st state, while 85 per cent do not.

The rejection appears clear across all regions, political parties and age groups.

Support for the idea is highest in Alberta, at 15 per cent, and lowest in Atlantic Canada at just three per cent, with fewer than one-in-10 people in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia wanting it.

About 18 per cent of Conservative supporters said they want Canada to become a U.S. state, while 97 per cent of Liberal and NDP voters, and 94 per cent of Bloc supporters said they would not want that.

The poll suggests a similar level of disdain among Canadians when asked if they would like to become American citizens, with 12 per cent saying yes to that question, and 82 per cent saying no.

Albertans again were most inclined to say yes to this question, at 21 per cent, and Atlantic Canadians the least, at four per cent.

The poll sampled more than 1,500 Canadian adults from Feb. 28 to March 2. Because the poll was conducted online, it can’t be assigned a margin of error.

Men were more open to the idea of becoming U.S. citizens, at 17 per cent, compared with seven per cent of women. Respondents over the age of 55 were least likely to want a U.S. citizenship, at six per cent, compared with 17 per cent of those between 18 and 34 years old and 16 per cent of respondents between 35 and 54.

Conservative respondents were much more interested in becoming American citizens (21 per cent) than Liberal and NDP respondents (5 per cent each).

Trump’s 51st state jabs began last fall shortly after he won the presidential election and have only escalated since, including as he pursues an increasingly punitive tariff agenda against Canada which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said is designed to destroy Canada’s economy to “make it easier to annex us.”

The Leger poll suggests that over three quarters of Canadians (78 per cent) have an “unfavourable” view of Trump, compared to 12 per cent who have a favourable view of the president and six per cent who say they don’t know enough about him to have an opinion.

Asked if they were in favour of the Canadian government responding with dollar-for-dollar tariffs to U.S. tariffs, 70 per cent said they were, while 18 per cent were opposed. Men (74 per cent) were more likely than women (66 per cent) to be in favour of it.

Asked about changes to their consumer behaviour over the past few weeks, with about two-thirds of respondents said they had decreased their purchases of American products in stores or online, and more than half cutting back on American fast-food restaurants like McDonald’s and Starbucks.

Just under half of respondents said they had decreased their purchases at American retail chains like Walmart and Costco.

Liberal, NDP and Bloc respondents were more likely than Conservatives to say they had changed their spending habits.

Seven in 10 respondents have increased their purchases of local Canadian products in recent weeks.

Twenty per cent of respondents who subscribe to a U.S. entertainment platform, like Netflix or Prime Video, said they had cancelled their subscription. Thirty per cent of respondents who had a trip planned to the U.S. said they cancelled it.

The polling industry’s professional body, the Canadian Research Insights Council, says online surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they do not randomly sample the population.

— With files from Nick Murray and Kelly Geraldine Malone.