Canada’s biggest worries are no longer confined to problems inside its own borders. New national figures show Donald Trump and his administration have become the second-most frequently identified major issue facing the country, trailing only the rising cost of living. The result puts the U.S. administration ahead of the economy, healthcare, housing affordability and immigration at a moment when Canada-U.S. trade relations have become increasingly uncertain. Forty-four per cent placed Trump and his administration among their three biggest concerns, compared with 37% for the economy, 27% for housing and 21% for immigration. Cost of living remained comfortably in first place at 63%. The numbers illustrate how deeply events in Washington have become intertwined with Canadian concerns about jobs, prices, investment and the country’s economic direction.
Trump Has Moved Above Nearly Every Domestic Issue
The latest Abacus Data findings put the scale of the change into perspective. When Canadians were asked to identify the three most important issues facing the country, 63% selected the rising cost of living. Donald Trump and his administration came next at 44%, followed by the economy at 37%. Healthcare was selected by 31%, housing affordability and accessibility by 27%, and immigration by 21%. Other concerns were considerably lower, including climate change and the environment at 17%, crime and public safety at 15%, and job security and unemployment at 14%. Because respondents could choose three answers, the results describe the issues occupying the most space in the public agenda rather than forcing everyone to name a single concern.
That distinction matters. The finding does not mean 44% of Canadians regard Trump as more important than every economic problem they face. Someone struggling with grocery prices, worried about their employer and concerned about U.S. tariffs could select all three. What is unusual is that an American president and his administration now appear so prominently alongside long-standing Canadian concerns such as housing and healthcare. Abacus surveyed 2,744 Canadian adults between September 18 and 23, with the data weighted to reflect the population by factors including age, gender, education and region. The firm reports a comparable probability-sample margin of error of plus or minus 1.87 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
The Rise in Concern Has Happened Remarkably Quickly
Trump-related concern was already visible earlier in the summer, but it had not reached its current position. In Abacus Data’s late-June and early-July wave, 29% identified Donald Trump and his administration as a top-three issue. At that point, cost of living stood at 69%, the economy at 37%, housing affordability at 33% and healthcare at 31%. Trump therefore sat behind several familiar domestic priorities. By the September 4-to-9 wave, however, the Trump figure had climbed to 46%, while the economy was at 39%, housing at 29% and immigration at 21%. The latest result of 44% represents a slight easing from that early-September reading but leaves the overall ranking intact.
Another national tracker has detected a similar change, although its methodology and question wording are different. Nanos Research reported on September 15 that relations with the United States had become the leading national issue of concern in its tracking, at 27.5%, ahead of jobs and the economy at 21.1%. Nanos uses random telephone interviews and a four-week rolling sample of 1,000 adults, while Abacus uses an online panel and allows respondents to select three issues. Their percentages therefore should not be compared directly. Taken separately, however, both measurements show that Canada-U.S. relations have risen sharply on the Canadian public agenda during the recent escalation in bilateral tensions.
The Trade Fight Makes Washington Feel Much Closer to Home
There is a practical economic reason developments in Washington can register as a Canadian household concern. The United States remains by far Canada’s largest merchandise export market. Statistics Canada reported that 71.7% of Canadian merchandise exports went to the U.S. in 2025. That was already down significantly from 75.9% in 2024 as exporters increased their business with other countries, but it still demonstrates how closely Canadian employment, manufacturing and investment are tied to access to American customers. A tariff decision made in Washington can therefore matter to an auto supplier in Ontario, a metals producer in Quebec or an exporter in Western Canada without much delay.
The latest dispute has made that connection unusually visible. Ottawa says the United States imposed 50% tariffs on $27.6 billion of Canadian goods in August, prompting Canada to introduce matching tariffs on $27.6 billion of U.S. products beginning September 8. The Bank of Canada estimates the latest U.S. measures directly affect products representing roughly 5% of Canada’s goods exports to the United States. Governor Tiff Macklem has warned that the greater danger may come from uncertainty causing businesses to postpone investment or hiring. If the new tariffs remain, the Bank estimates fourth-quarter growth could be roughly halved to below 1%. Those consequences help explain why a foreign-policy dispute can also be experienced as an economic issue at home.
Quebec Stands Out From the Rest of the Country
National averages hide substantial regional differences. In Quebec, 59% identified Donald Trump and his administration as a top-three concern in the latest Abacus results. That was even higher than the 56% who selected the rising cost of living, making Trump the most frequently chosen issue in Quebec. No other region showed the same ordering. Trump-related concern nevertheless remained significant elsewhere: 48% in Atlantic Canada, 40% in Ontario, 37% in British Columbia, 37% in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and 36% in Alberta. The pattern suggests that the intensity of concern varies considerably even while the U.S. relationship has become a nationwide political issue.
Different parts of the country also continue to place different weight on economic questions. Alberta recorded the highest concern about the economy at 47%, followed closely by British Columbia at 45%. Immigration reached 27% in both Alberta and Saskatchewan-Manitoba but only 12% in Atlantic Canada. Housing affordability ranged from 22% in Alberta to 30% in Atlantic Canada. Those differences complicate any attempt to describe Canadians as focused on one common problem. The more accurate picture is a public dealing simultaneously with affordability, healthcare, housing and employment pressures while also watching an unusually consequential confrontation with the country that remains Canada’s dominant trading partner.
Economic and Housing Pressures Have Not Gone Away
Trump’s rise to second place should not be interpreted as evidence that household financial pressure has faded. Cost of living is still far ahead of every other issue at 63%. Statistics Canada reported that consumer prices were 3.0% higher in August 2026 than a year earlier, matching July’s inflation rate. Prices excluding gasoline increased 2.4%. The unemployment rate was 6.4% in August, with about 1.5 million people unemployed and nearly one-quarter of them classified as long-term unemployed. Those numbers help explain why affordability and economic security remain deeply embedded in Canadians’ priorities even as international tensions attract more attention.
Housing offers another reminder of how serious the underlying domestic pressures remain. Statistics Canada’s latest Canadian Housing Survey results found that 23.2% of households were living in unaffordable housing in 2024, meaning shelter costs consumed at least 30% of household income. The rate was 33.7% among renters and 17.4% among owners. More recent supply figures also remain challenging: CMHC reported that the six-month trend in housing starts slipped 1.3% in August 2026 to an annualized 244,149 units, while actual starts in larger population centres were 2% lower than a year earlier. Trump ranking above housing in an issues question therefore reflects relative public attention, not the disappearance of Canada’s housing problem.
Canadians Give the Parties Very Different Marks Depending on the Issue
The Trump issue also stands apart because Canadians concerned about it assess the major parties very differently. Among respondents who included Donald Trump and his administration in their top three concerns, 68% said the Liberal Party was best able to deal with the issue, while 14% chose the Conservative Party. Thirteen per cent were unsure, with the remaining responses divided among other parties. These figures apply specifically to people who identified Trump as a major concern; they are not the views of all Canadians and should not be read as a general evaluation of either party.
The pattern changes sharply on other issues. Among respondents concerned about immigration, 59% selected the Conservatives as best able to deal with it, compared with 14% who selected the Liberals. On crime and public safety, the figures were 50% Conservative and 21% Liberal. Job security and unemployment produced a 42%-to-26% Conservative result. By contrast, assessments on the economy were extremely close, with 41% choosing the Liberals and 39% the Conservatives, while housing was similarly competitive at 29% Conservative and 27% Liberal. The figures show why issue salience matters politically without proving that one concern alone determines voting behaviour. Different groups of Canadians prioritize different problems and attach different parties to the solutions they prefer.
What the No. 2 Ranking Actually Tells Us
The most important qualification is contained in the question itself. Respondents were not asked to choose one problem that mattered above everything else. They selected three. That is why the percentages add up to far more than 100%, and it means the result is best understood as a measurement of salience. The precise finding is that 44% included “Donald Trump and his administration” among the three most important issues facing Canada. Cost of living remained substantially higher at 63%, and many of the same respondents may have selected both. The headline ranking is accurate, but the underlying data describe overlapping concerns rather than mutually exclusive camps.
There is also evidence that public attention can shift rapidly. Trump-related concern moved from 29% in early July to 46% in early September before settling at 44% in the newest wave. Future trade negotiations, tariffs, economic conditions or unrelated domestic events could change that balance again. For now, however, two separate national research programs indicate that relations with the United States are occupying an unusually prominent place in Canadian public opinion. The larger story is therefore not simply that Trump has overtaken housing or immigration in one ranking. It is that the Canada-U.S. relationship has become intertwined with Canadians’ concerns about growth, jobs, prices and economic security to an extent that makes Washington feel increasingly like part of the domestic agenda.
