This report draws on the most recent Confederation of Tomorrow survey to present an updated picture of how Western Canadians view their province’s place in the federation. The survey finds that, rather than growing, levels of dissatisfaction in the three Prairie provinces with how federalism works in Canada declined between 2024 and 2025. Despite this, two in five Westerners continue to agree that the West might be better off on its own. Moreover, while a clear majority in the region wishes to stay in Canada, the proportion that would prefer to leave is higher today than it was in the early 1980s.
The trend in British Columbia is somewhat different from that in the Prairies. There has been no similar decline in the past year in dissatisfaction with federalism in B.C. – and, in fact, some of the improvements seen at the beginning of this decade have been reversed.
2025 Survey Details
The 2025 study consists of a survey of 5,391 adults, conducted between May 1 and June 16, 2025 (92% of the responses were collected between May 6 and May 29); 90% of the responses were collected online. The remaining responses were collected by telephone (both landline and cell phone) from respondents living in the North or on First Nations reserves, or from francophone respondents in New Brunswick.
Funder
This project benefits from the financial support of the Research Support Program of the Secrétariat du Québec aux relations canadiennes (SQRC) / Ce projet bénéficie de l’appui financier du Programme d’appui à la recherche du Secrétariat du Québec aux relations canadiennes (SQRC).
Note: the Confederation of Tomorrow uses separate weighting factors for the overall results, the results for residents of the three territories (the North), and for Indigenous Peoples. When reporting results for the territories (individually or as a region) or for Indigenous Peoples, please use the corresponding separate tables.
The Confederation of Tomorrow surveys give voice to Canadians about the major issues shaping the future of the federation and their political communities. They are conducted annually by an association of the country’s leading public policy and socio-economic research organizations: the Environics Institute for Survey Research, the Centre of Excellence on the Canadian Federation, the Canada West Foundation, the Centre D’Analyse Politique – Constitution et Fédéralisme, the Brian Mulroney Institute of Government and the First Nations Financial Management Board.
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