The Canadian people are not happy with the US. According to a new poll from the Pew Research Center, just 39% of Canadians now view the US favorably, down from 72% in 2002.
The poll was conducted from May through August before the new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade pact was completed as a replacement for NAFTA. Will the end of contentious negotiations be enough to ease the ill will?
Canadians feel even worse about Donald Trump than they do about the US, according to the poll. Only 25% of Canadians have confidence in Trump, compared to the 83% who felt that way about Barack Obama at the end his term.
Even when Canadians had levels of confidence in former US president George W. Bush that were comparable to how they feel about Trump, the majority still felt favorably toward the US. There appears to something special now about Trump or current US policies that have turned off their neighbors to the north.