In the 2025 Canadian federal election, the Liberal and Conservative parties combined to take over 90% of the vote share, the first time two parties each received more than 40% of the popular vote since 1930. As the two major parties increasingly dominate Canadian politics, YouGov’s latest survey uncovers the motivations and sentiments among Liberals and Conservatives. Post-election, the majority of Liberals expect Liberal Mark Carney to be a good or excellent prime minister. Many Conservatives, in contrast, say they are unhappy about the direction of the country.
After the election, more Canadians think Canada is headed in the wrong direction than the right one: 48% of Canadians say that Canada is off on the wrong track, 19 percentage points higher than the share of Canadians who say Canada is generally headed in the right direction. 73% of Conservatives say that Canada is off on the wrong track, compared to only 18% of Liberals. On the other hand, 59% of Liberals say Canada is generally headed in the right direction, compared to only 14% of Conservatives.
The positive sentiment of many Liberals about the direction of Canada has helped to push overall positive sentiment higher. Although around half of Canadians think the country is off on the wrong track, the share who think the country is generally headed in the right direction is up 10 points since the end of January to its highest point in that period.
Around half (48%) of Canadians think Carney will be a good or excellent prime minister. Liberals are fueling this positive sentiment: 82% of Liberals think Carney will be good or excellent. On the other hand, most Conservatives (60%) expect Carney to be a fair or poor prime minister.
As Canadians are split on the direction of the country and Carney's potential as prime minister, their feelings about the results of the election also diverge. 36% of Liberals say that they are feeling optimistic after Carney’s win, in contrast to 10% of Conservatives, when choosing any that apply from a list of emotions. After optimism, Liberals are most likely to say they feel happy (15%) or reassured (15%). 21% of Conservatives say they feel pessimistic about the results of the election, while 15% feel angry and another 15% are scared.
— Kristin Crawford and Carl Bialik contributed to this article
See the results for this YouGov poll
Methodology: This article includes results from an online survey conducted May 7 - 13, 2025 among 986 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 2025 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
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