Canadians have 'sense of superiority' over Americans, poll finds

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary of declaring independence of our common mother country, Canadians remain uneasy siblings with Americans, a new poll suggests.

A new Postmedia-Leger poll shows 64 per cent of us think we’re nicer than Americans; another 54 per cent think we’re more cultured. Two-thirds find Americans more arrogant, while 82 per cent think we’re more admired in the world.

“From the data I would say we have a sense of superiority over Americans in a number of areas — Canadians believe they are more humble, cultured and generally nicer,” said Andrew Enns, Leger’s executive vice-president.

“I’d add that the majority of Canadians are of a view that the world likes us better.”

The poll found Canadians have stronger, generally more negative views about Americans versus Americans about us. More than a third of Canadians say they do not admire the U.S. at all.

The poll, conducted on both sides of the border, found two-thirds of Canadians associate Americans with arrogance while only nine per cent of our U.S. neighbours would say the same of us.

While Canadians are more likely to say this country offers better opportunities for someone willing to work hard (37 per cent), over one fifth of us (22 per cent) said the opportunities in the United States are better, and 32 per cent said the two countries are about the same in that respect, according to the new poll.

“If this poll was exclusively conducted in Western Canada, the results would have been very different,” said Donald Abelson, a professor of political science at McMaster University whose focus is on American politics. “Western Canadians tend to admire that spirit of American entrepreneurship.”

Same goes for richer Canadians, he said.

“People who are wealthier in Canada and resent paying the kind of taxes that they do here often look to the United States,” Abelson said. “It’s a very, very familiar move.”

A third of American respondents (33 per cent) said the U.S. offered better opportunities for those willing to work hard, while 16 per cent of them chose Canada in that regard, and 31 per cent indicated they see no difference.

The poll comes in the wake of the July 1 deadline for the U.S., Canada, and Mexico to review and confirm their intentions regarding the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA). The U.S. declined to agree to renew the deal in its “current form.”

When Donald Trump became president in 2017 and again in 2024, “there were a lot of Canadians who viewed the United States as being incredibly arrogant given the number of times the Trump administration put a target on our back, the number of times that offensive comments were made to our leaders, most recently about becoming the 51st state of the United States,” said Abelson.

“I think Canadians are generally seeing the Americans as being more aggressive, more arrogant in the belief that they can do anything they want without any kind of repercussions.”