The Two Amigos: Canadians give high marks to relations between Canada and Mexico while seeing the current state of relations with the United States as bad as it is between Canada and Russia

April 25, 2025

Whoever wins the federal election on April 28th will have their work cut out for them when it comes to international relations and notably key bilateral relationships. Canadians have seen the relationship with the United States sour with no immediate end in sight to the decline. A survey conducted by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies reveals that three out of four Canadians describe the relationship as bad which is higher than the negative assessment given to relations between Canada and Russia! Canadians give the most positive relationship ratings to Canada and Mexico, Canada and the UK and Canada and the EU. It would seem as though that Canadians may seem common cause with the other ‘amigo’ far more so than with the United States. As regards relations between Canada and China which have been quite strained in recent years while more Canadians currently see them as ‘bad’ than they do ‘good’, the gap is not insurmountable. It is worth noting that Liberal leader Mark Carney has described China as the country’s biggest security threat. Recently, China’s ambassador to Canada said Beijing is offering to form a partnership with Canada to push back against American “bullying,” suggesting the two countries could rally other nations to stop Washington from undermining global rules (https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/trumps-tariffs/article/china-says-it-wants-to-partner-with-canada-to-push-back-against-american-bullying/) These findings emerge from a survey conducted by Leger Marketing for the Association for Canadian Studies over the period April 17-19, 2025.with1603 respondents in Canada over the period January 17 and 19, 2025 A margin of error cannot be associated with a non-probability sample in a panel survey for comparison purposes. A probability sample of 1603 respondents would have a margin of error of ±2.5%, 19 times out of 20.