Eighty percent. That is the share of Canadians who told Abacus Data that Canada ought to work more closely with the European Union on strategy, whether the subject is foreign policy, defence or the economy. That is a gain of six points since February. The poll, run from September 4 to 9, landed just as Prime Minister Mark Carney set out for Europe.
His trip runs September 15 to 17. In Strasbourg he is due to address the European Parliament, sit in on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the European Union address, and meet members of the Parliament. Then he flies to Liverpool, where he will meet Andy Burnham for the first time since the British prime minister took office on July 20. Defence and security, energy, artificial intelligence and critical minerals are on that agenda, according to the Prime Minister’s Office. Burnham is the fourth British prime minister in four years.
What the poll found
The EU is viewed favourably by 71 percent of Canadians, up five points, and unfavourably by 16 percent, unchanged. The United States has slid the other way: 21 percent view it positively, down three points, and 75 percent negatively, up six. That leaves a 50-point gap between the two. Eighty-one percent back closer integration with the EU, including easier trade, travel, work and study. Fifty-six percent say Canada has more in common with EU countries than with the United States; only 16 percent say the reverse.
Asked which worries them more, 39 percent named Canada’s heavy reliance on the United States. Just 16 percent feared that closer EU ties might damage the relationship with Washington.
Support for deeper cooperation runs across the map: 84 percent in British Columbia, 82 in Quebec, 80 in Ontario, 79 in Alberta, 74 in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, 73 in Atlantic Canada. Party lines show a wider spread. Liberal and NDP voters sit at 92 percent, Bloc Quebecois voters at 86, Conservatives at 69.
Membership is another matter
Whether to join outright splits the country. Forty-nine percent would support Canada becoming an EU member state, 30 percent oppose it and 21 percent are unsure. That is up from 48 percent in February and 46 percent in 2025. Sixty-four percent of Liberal voters back membership, with 56 percent of NDP voters and 57 percent of Bloc voters. Among Conservatives, 33 percent are in favour and 51 percent opposed.
Carney himself has played down membership. The Wall Street Journal reported on the Sunday before he left that he wanted to make Canada the EU’s first “associate member”. That same day, at the Toronto International Film Festival, he told reporters, in the Globe and Mail’s account, “We’re not looking to become a member of the European Union.” Canada, he said, is starting talks on a “unique alliance”. The EU’s ambassador to Canada said earlier that week that Carney and EU officials were looking to hash out a new partnership in Strasbourg.
Behind it sits the trade fight. Canadian counter tariffs on billions of dollars of US products had taken effect the Tuesday before, after Canada-U.S. trade talks broke down in late August. The Abacus survey reached 1,479 adults, with a margin of error of about 2.5 percentage points.
Sources
- Canadians are 'overwhelmingly open' to closer EU ties as Carney heads to Europe: poll (National Post, Ellie Hutchings)
- Carney to meet UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham during three-day European trip (The Canadian Press, via CityNews Toronto)
