In both of the two major Canadian parties, voters are united in considering the recent federal election to be unusually important. Around 90% of 2025 Conservative and Liberal voters say this election was more important than previous federal elections in their lifetime, according to YouGov’s recent survey. What factors influenced how Canadians voted in this past election?
By far, the most important issue for 2025 Liberal voters was U.S.-Canada relations: It was cited by 36% as the issue having the most impact on their vote. Among Liberal voters, jobs and the economy (10%) was a distant second, followed by healthcare (7%). Conservative voters' top three election issues relate to the country’s economics: the budget, taxes, and the federal deficit (20%), inflation (11%), and jobs and the economy (10%). 9% of Conservative voters name immigration policy as the top issue influencing their vote, compared to merely 1% of Liberal voters. And only 9% of Conservative voters named U.S.-Canada relations as their top election issue.
Although U.S.-Canada relations was one of the top issues leading up to the Canadian election, only 5% of Conservative voters say that U.S. President Donald Trump was the top reason for their decision of how to vote, and 40% say that he had at least some impact on their vote. In contrast, 76% of Liberal voters say that he had at least some impact on their vote, including 18% who say he was the biggest reason for their voting decision.
Many Canadian voters (39%) say they knew who they were going to vote for all along. That number is higher among Conservative voters: 48% say they knew who they were going to vote for all along, compared to 32% of Liberal voters. Half (49%) of Liberal voters say they decided if and how they were going to vote within a month of election day.
— Kristin Crawford 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 (Minas Panagiotakis / Stringer)
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