Canadian poll shows US seen as bigger threat than Russia

Canadians are increasingly treating the United States less like a security blanket and more like a hazard—and not because Russia suddenly became lovable.

A new poll reported by Global News, conducted with UK-based firm Public First for Politico, finds a plurality of Canadians no longer view the US as an ally. Forty-eight percent of Canadians surveyed said the US is a bigger threat to world peace than Russia, while 43% described the US as “mostly a threat” to global stability.

The survey sampled adults across Canada, the US, Britain, France and Germany. In the European countries, majorities still identified Russia as the greatest threat amid the ongoing war in Ukraine. Canada is the outlier: the neighbor with the shared language, integrated supply chains, and decades of alliance rhetoric now wins the “threat” category.

Global News ties the shift to President Donald Trump’s trade war and repeated attacks on Canadian sovereignty—an approach that treats tariffs as a multipurpose tool for extracting concessions. The poll also lands as Trump continues to rattle NATO partners, including by pressing for the acquisition of Greenland, a Danish territory, thereby forcing allied governments to pretend this is normal alliance management.

The numbers are not subtle. According to the poll, 58% of Canadians said the US is no longer a reliable ally; 42% said America isn’t an ally at all. Majorities said the US cannot be depended upon in a crisis (57%) and that it “challenges,” rather than supports, allies (67%). Over two-thirds said the US creates problems for other countries rather than solve them, and 55% said the US does not share Canadians’ values.

This isn’t merely about feelings. For a middle power like Canada, “alliance” is a practical instrument: it determines procurement, intelligence sharing, basing assumptions, and the credibility of deterrence. When the dominant partner signals that everything is negotiable—trade access, territorial integrity, even treaty solidarity—Ottawa has to price in political risk where it previously assumed continuity.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has described the moment as a “rupture” in the rules-based order and is pushing closer coordination among “middle powers” through trade and security partnerships, Global News reports. That is diplomatic code for: diversify away from the single counterparty that can unilaterally change the terms.

Notably, the poll suggests the souring view crosses party lines. Conservative-leaning voters were less negative, but even there the direction is ugly: 69% agreed Trump has weakened the Canada–US relationship, and 57% said he is actively seeking conflict with other countries unprovoked.

For decades, NATO’s story was that liberal democracies form a stable club against external threats. Canada’s new public mood suggests the greatest risk to small allies is not always an enemy state. Sometimes it’s the “indispensable” partner that decides indispensability should come with a surcharge.