On Thanksgiving Canadians will be far more likely than Americans to be thankful for the lesser influence of religion on their society

October 9, 2025

On October 13, Canadians will celebrate Thanksgiving, an annual celebration meant to honor life’s blessings while spending quality time with close family and friends. Both in Canada and the United States, the origins of Thanksgiving are based in religion, Canada’s version of the holiday was initially created to express thanks for explorers’ safe voyages into the New World. When it comes to issues of identity one of the profound differences between Canada and the United States is the respective extent to which they value religion and see it as having a positive or negative impact on society. The difference is not without significance for politics, social policy and relations between groups in countries that traditionally like to describe themselves as separating Church from state. To examine the extent of that gap between the two countries regarding the value assign to religion, the Association for Canadian Studies commissioned Leger to ask Americans and Canadians about whether religion positively influenced societal values. America’s broad commemoration to the memory of Charlie Kirk in the aftermath of his assassination was in part an indication of the importance of religion in the United States. On the other hand, Quebec’s continued fervor in seeking additional ways of restricting religion expression in public spaces is example of the perceived negative influence of religion on society. The findings are based on surveys conducted via web panel by the firm Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies between August 29 and 31, 2025 with 1627 Canadians and 1014 Americans. While no margin of error can be associated with a non-probability sample of 1627 respondents would have a margin of error of ±2.52%, 19 times out of 20 while 1014 of ±3.95%, 19 times out of 20