Affordability and health care topped the list of Canadians’ top issues in 2025, while the decline of the Canada–U.S. relationship dominated the year’s biggest news stories for Canadians, according to new polling conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Global News.
“Affordability ranked number one on the issues Canadians focused most on this past year, overwhelmingly,” Ipsos Public Affairs CEO Darrell Bricker told Global in an interview, followed closely by health care, “and not because Canadians are happy about it,” he said.
Forty-one per cent of those polled said affordability and the cost of living were the most important issue in Canada, followed by health care at 38 per cent.
The economy (28 per cent) and housing (27 per cent) followed as the next most important issues, underscoring what Bricker described as persistent anxiety about household finances and access to basic services.
Bricker said the findings show the pressures of affordability and housing are felt most acutely by younger Canadians.
The poll suggests a closely divided political landscape, with the Liberals and Conservatives each seen as strongest on five of the top 10 issues. Conservatives held a slight advantage on affordability-related concerns, while Liberals were viewed more favourably on health care and the economy.
“Usually what you find is the party that wins the election is the one that’s 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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While affordability topped the list, Bricker said the Liberals benefited from a commanding lead on managing relations with the United States — an issue where they remain far ahead of the Conservatives. Canada’s relationship with its southern neighbour, he said, continues to outweigh even affordability concerns for many voters.
“They are still 39 points ahead on who is best able to deal with that issue. . . The Liberals have a huge, huge lead (there).”
Following affordability and cost of living, healthcare and the economy in the top three respective spots, the other top issues for Canadians were as follows: housing, immigration, Canada’s relationship with the U.S., interest rates and inflation, taxes, unemployment/jobs, and crime and violence coming in last.
Canada–U.S. tensions, global conflicts shaped how Canadians saw the year’s biggest stories
The Canada–U.S. relationship also dominated Canadians’ assessment of the year’s biggest international news stories.
More than half — 56 per cent — of respondents said U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs were the top story globally, followed by one third who pointed to Trump’s return to the White House. The conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza ranked third and fourth, respectively.
Bricker said Canadians say they see those stories as deeply interconnected.
“We see (the top news stories) as overwhelmingly dominated by things that Donald Trump has touched,” said Bricker, adding that many of the stories Canadians are watching involve actions “being done to Canada, or they’re observing being done by Donald Trump and his administration.”
“So (Trump) is integrated into everything that Canadians are looking at right now.”
Ipsos also found growing pessimism about global conflicts. Canadians are closely following wars abroad, Bricker said, “but they’re not watching it with any degree of optimism.”
The poll found the remaining top international news stories to Canadians in 2025 were the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, the developments on the Epstein files, 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 within the Trump Administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
As for domestic stories of the year, 42 per cent 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 per cent. The election of Prime Minister Mark Carney ranked third at 33 per cent.
The other top domestic stories were the Canada Post strike, Justin Trudeau’s resignation as Prime Minister, the Toronto Blue Jays making it to the World Series, the homelessness crisis, immigration policy changes, the Air Canada strike, and in last place the bankruptcy and permanent closure of Hudson’s Bay.
Both surveys were conducted online between Dec. 8 and 15 among 1,502 Canadians aged 18 and over. The results were weighted to reflect the national population and are considered accurate within a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
