After earlier uncertainty about whether U.S. President Donald Trump would impose tariffs on Canada, the U.S. imposed 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports in March and 25% tariffs on auto imports in April. In response, Canada imposed retaliatory tariffs on auto imports. Amid this trade war, YouGov has conducted a follow-up to a February survey to understand Canadians’ opinions on the U.S. tariffs and U.S.-Canada relations.
Only 25% of Canadians now consider the U.S. to be an ally or friendly, down 8 percentage points from February 2025. In YouGov’s latest survey, Canadians are most likely to consider the U.S. unfriendly (44%), up from 36%. And 20% consider the U.S. to be an enemy, up from 14%.
Majorities of New Democrats (83%) and Liberals (77%) consider the U.S. to be unfriendly or an enemy, compared to about half (52%) of Conservatives.
With many Canadians viewing the U.S. as antagonistic to Canada, a majority (61%) say they have started boycotting American companies. The percentage of Canadians saying they are boycotting American companies has increased by 8 points since February 2025.
Boycott rates are highest among the New Democrats (75%) and Liberals (72%). Around half (54%) of Conservatives also say that they have started boycotting American companies, an increase from 46% in February 2025.
As Canada confronts the U.S. tariffs with a slate of measures, some hypothetical and some already in place, YouGov has found that majorities of Canadians consider many of the countermeasures to be effective. Diversifying Canada’s trade partners is the top response to U.S. tariffs in terms of perceived effectiveness: 71% of Canadians say that it is effective and only 11% say it is ineffective. Four other measures —stopping the sale of American liquor, oil, and electricity, and implementing retaliatory tariffs — are each perceived as effective by nearly as many (64% or 65% for each) as approve of diversifying Canada’s trade partners. Among the eight measures asked about, appointing a fentanyl czar is least likely to be seen as an effective measure in responding to U.S. tariffs: Only 24% Canadians think it is effective.
— Kristin Crawford and Taylor Orth contributed to this article
See the results for this YouGov poll
Methodology: This article includes results from an online survey conducted March 27 - April 2, 2025 among 993 Canadian adults. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of adult Canadians. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, education, region, and 2021 federal election vote. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2021 Canadian Census. The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 3%.
Image: Getty (Bill Pugliano / Stringer)
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