Canadians feel highest levels of anger, pessimism towards Trudeau government since 2018: Nanos poll

A survey recently conducted by Nanos Research found that anger and pessimism towards the Trudeau Liberal-NDP coalition have reached their highest levels since 2018, with nearly two thirds of Canadians saying they harbour primarily negative feelings towards those in power.

During that same time period, optimism and satisfaction with the federal government has continued to fall.

Of the 1069 respondents surveyed between March 31 and April 1, 31 percent said "anger" best described their views of the federal government, while another 31 percent said "pessimism." 

Just 10 percent said "optimism," while 11 percent said "satisfaction." The remaining 17 percent chose either "disinterest" or "unsure."

Although the prairie provinces were by far home to the most angry respondents, 44.6 percent, Ontarians and British Columbians were most pessimistic, at 33.8 and 32.1 percent, respectively.

There was fairly little difference between age groups when it came to anger and pessimism, however Canadians 18-34 were half as likely to be satisfied with the federal government than those above 35 years of age.

Along gender lines, on the other hand, the disparities were more pronounced. Over 36 percent of men reported feeling anger, compared to just 26 percent of women, while 13 percent of women said they were satisfied, compared to just 9.4 percent of men.

When Nanos first started collecting data on the question in 2018, 23 percent of Canadians said they were angry, 24 percent said they were pessimistic, and 19 percent said they were optimstic or satisfied, respectively.

While there was a rise in positive feelings and decline in negative feelings during the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, by mid-2021 the numbers returned to their pre-2020 levels, and then proceeded to get further apart.

Participants completed the survey via online or telephone questionnaires. The results were "statistically checked and weighted by age and gender using the latest Census information." The margin of error is +/- 3 percent.