Are Canadians happy Donald Trump won? The MAGA leader has a lots of fans in Alberta

Undoubtedly there are mixed feelings across Canada about Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 Presidential elections. However, there is one province in Canada that is undoubtedly celebrating the American leader's win: Alberta.

In August 2024, a Canadian culture and news magazine made a very strange claim: people living in Alberta allegedly liked Donald Trump a lot more than most Americans.

Polling data published in mid-August revealed that while most Canadians preferred Kamala Harris as the more favorable candidate in the upcoming U.S. election, some still had a positive impression of Trump despite his many faults and slights against America's northern neighbor. 

48% of the 1,550 Canadians surveyed between July 31st and August 7th had a positive impression of Harris compared to just 21% who stated they had a positive impression of Trump, according to findings from Abacus Data. 

61% of the Canadians surveyed said they had a negative view of the former president with nearly 50% of that number noting they had a “very negative” view of Trump. Only 21% of people had a negative impression of Harris.

Positive impressions of Harris were higher among older Canadians, 61% of those 60 and over liked the Vice President compared to 37% of those 18-to-29. But the most interesting finding of the survey was a regional variation. 

“Regionally, Canadians are more likely to have a positive impression of Vice President Harris in nearly all provinces, with the exception of Alberta,” the  CEO of Abacus Data David Coletto noted in a report on the firm's findings. 

Harris had a 33% negative impression rating in Alberta compared to a close 32% positive impression rating, giving her a net rating of -1 points. Trump’s net rating in the province was a lot more interesting, however. 

31% of Albertans had a positive impression of Trump compared to 44% who had a negative impression, meaning the former president had a -13 net impression rating. 

Trump's rating was a lot higher than his net favorability rating in the United States at the same time according to a different polling firm. 

Trump's -13 in Alberta was 9 points higher than the -22 net favorability rating among all of the United States that polling from Ipsos and ABC News found. These results were also published on August 13th and reported on by Cult MTL magazine’s Matthew Renfrew. 

“Donald Trump is officially more popular in Alberta than he is in the United States,” read the headline of a story from Renfrew written for Cult MTL, which was a statement that was technically correct based on the polling data from Ipsos/ ABC News and Abacus Data. 

While the comparison made by Renfrew is fun, the data hits at the deeper nature of Trump's unpopularity not only in his own country but also in the countries that are closest to the United States.

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