The AmericasBarometer surveys conducted in Canada by the Environics Institute have been tracking trust in political institutions and actors in a consistent way since 2010. The results of the latest survey, conducted in the summer of 2025, provide a comprehensive update. They show that the extent to which Canadians trust political actors and institutions has, in most cases, held steady over the past 15 years. In some cases, trust has increased. The results also cast doubt on the assumption that young people, in particular, are losing trust in the political system. If one age group stands out, it is older people, not younger people – older Canadians are much more likely to express strong support for the country’s political system.
Where trust has been declining over the past decade is among supporters of the Conservative Party – since the party was defeated in 2015. As a result of this trend, the current extent of the gaps in trust between supporters of the Liberal and Conservative parties in Canada are now as wide in some cases as those between supporters of the Republican and Democratic parties in the U.S. – with the exception that trust is higher among supporters of the more left-wing party in Canada, but the more right-wing party in the U.S. The key distinction is not between left- and right-wing parties, but between governing and opposition parties (or between election winners and losers). Only time will tell whether trust will rebound significantly among supporters of the Conservative Party once their party returns to power, or whether this decline in trust over the past decade will prove more difficult to reverse.
Survey Details
The AmericasBarometer is a regular comparative survey of democratic values and behaviours that covers countries in North, Central and South America, as well as a significant number of countries in the Caribbean (the 2025-26 study will cover 20 countries). The project is led by the LAPOP Lab at Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy (CGD). The Canadian survey was conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research, in partnership with CGD’s LAPOP Lab at Vanderbilt University and with the support of the Max Bell Foundation.
The Canadian survey was conducted online with a sample of 3,550 Canadians (aged 18 and over) between July 30 and August 7, 2025. The results are weighted by region, age, gender, education and language so as to be fully representative of the Canadian population. The U.S. survey was conducted online with 1,600 Americans (18 years of age and older) between October 3 and 16, 2025. The results are weighted by region, age, gender, education and ethnicity so as to be fully representative of the American population.
The AmericasBarometer surveys measure trust in a range of political institutions and actors on a seven-point scale. Here is a summary of the most recent results for Canada, showing the trend since 2010.
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