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Affordability and health care topped the list of top issues for Canadians in 2025, while decline in Canadian-American relations dominated the news of the year for Canadians, according to a new poll conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Global News.
“Affordability ranked first among the issues Canadians focused on most over the past year, overwhelmingly,” Darrell Bricker, CEO of Ipsos public affairs, told Global in an interview, followed closely by health care, “and not because Canadians are happy with it,” he said.
Forty-one percent of respondents said affordability and cost of living were the most important issues in Canada, followed by health care at 38 percent.
This was followed by the economy (28 percent) and housing (27 percent), highlighting what Bricker described as persistent anxiety over household finances and access to basic services.
Bricker said the findings show that affordability and housing pressures are felt more intensely by younger Canadians.
The poll reveals a sharply divided political landscape, with liberals and conservatives each seen as strongest on five of the top ten issues. Conservatives held a slight advantage when it came to affordability concerns, while liberals were viewed more favorably when it came to health care and the economy.
“Usually the party that wins elections is the one that is seen as doing the best job on the most important issue,” Bricker said. “Interestingly, in the last election that wasn’t the case. The issue of affordability was at the top of the list and the Conservatives were leading on that, but the Liberals ended up winning.”
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Although affordability tops the list, Bricker said the Liberals enjoy a considerable lead in managing relations with the United States – an issue where they remain far ahead of the Conservatives. Canada’s relationship with its southern neighbor, he said, continues to outweigh affordability concerns for many voters.
“They’re still 39 points ahead of whoever can best solve this problem. . . . The Liberals have a huge, huge lead (in this area).”
After affordability and cost of living, health care and the economy in the respective top three spots, the other top issues for Canadians were: housing, immigration, Canada’s relationship with the United States, interest rates and inflation, taxes, unemployment/employment, and crime and violence coming in last.
Canada-US tensions and global conflicts shaped how Canadians viewed the year’s biggest stories
Relations between Canada and the United States also dominated Canadians’ ratings of the year’s biggest international stories.
More than half – 56 percent – of those surveyed said US President Donald Trump’s tariffs made headlines globally, followed by a third that highlighted Trump’s return to the White House. The conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza rank third and fourth, respectively.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump hold a news conference at the White House in Washington, DC, Tuesday, October 7, 2025.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Bricker said Canadians believe these stories are deeply interconnected.
“We view (top news stories) as being overwhelmingly dominated by things that Donald Trump has touched,” Bricker said, adding that many of the stories Canadians watch involve actions “made in Canada, or that they observe being done by Donald Trump and his administration.”
“So (Trump) is embedded in everything Canadians are watching right now.”
Ipsos also noted growing pessimism about global conflicts. Canadians closely follow foreign wars, Bricker said, “but they don’t look at them with any optimism.”
The poll found that the top international news stories for Canadians in 2025 were the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, developments in the Epstein cases, the rise of artificial intelligence technologies, the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk, global pressures from migration and immigration, and Elon Musk’s activities in the Trump administration’s Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE).
When it came to national news stories of the year, 42 percent of respondents said 2025 was most defined by the deterioration of Canada-U.S. relations, narrowly edging out coverage of the rising cost of living at 41 percent. The election of Prime Minister Mark Carney comes third with 33 percent.
Other major events in the country included the Canada Post strike, the resignation of Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister, the Toronto Blue Jays’ appearance in the World Series, the homelessness crisis, changes in immigration policy, the Air Canada strike and, ultimately, the bankruptcy and permanent closure of Hudson’s Bay.
The two surveys were conducted online between December 8 and 15 among 1,502 Canadians aged 18 and over. Results have been weighted to reflect the national population and are considered accurate with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
