Neither Canadians nor Americans want Canada to join the USA

A new binational poll from YouGov revealed a large majority of Canadians and a near majority of Americans oppose the idea of Canada becoming a new US state. 

YouGov surveyed just over 1,000 Canadians and Americans throughout January and found that 77% of Canadians strongly or somewhat opposed the idea of Canada becoming a state while 42% of Americans thought the same. 

One-fifth of Canadians (15%) supported US statehood, which was a lot but still far less than the 36% of Americans who said they supported the idea. These results matched other recent poll findings. 

According to an Ipsos poll published on January 16th, 80% of the 1,000 Canadians that the polling firm surveyed said they would never vote for Canada to become part of the U.S., including 77% of those aged 18 to 35. 

However, 43% of those aged 18 to 35 did say they would vote for Canada to become a part of the United States if Washington offered full US citizenship and guaranteed a full conversion of the Canadian dollar and all personal assets into the US dollar. 

The findings were quite worrying though Canada’s younger generations did seem to understand the risks facing their country. 65% indicated that Donald Trump’s remarks on Canada becoming the 51st state put the country’s sovereignty in serious jeopardy. 

Concerns about Canada’s future may be why so many younger Canadians were willing to entertain the idea of becoming a part of the United States if their financial needs, along with their citizenship requirements, were met by Washington. 

Ipsos’ latest data came on the heels of other important survey findings that revealed a lot of concerning truths about Canada becoming the 51st state. This data also backed up YouGov's recent binational findings. 

According to poll findings from the Canadian market research and public opinion firm Angus Reid published on January 14th, 32% of those surveyed by Angus Reid in Canada believed that Trump was serious when he said he wanted to make Canada the 51st state. 

On the other hand, two-thirds of Americans have paid little attention to their incoming President’s comments about adding Canada to the union. However, many Americans think that it should be up to Canadians to decide if they want to join America. 

“After a month of what was initially waved off as “silly talk”, the narrative is creating significant anxiety among Canadians, and bemusement among the few Americans actually aware of the situation,” Angus Reid reported. 

Pollsters discovered that three-quarters of the Americans they surveyed (77%) say Canadians should be the only ones making the choice about joining the United States opposed to 5% who believe they should be pressured. 

In what may have been the most worrying discovery of the survey, one percent of the American respondents indicated military force should be used to incorporate Canada as a state. 

“Trump has said he wouldn’t use military force to bring Canada into the fold, but three-in-five Canadians (62%) say they don’t trust him to hold to his word,” Angus Reid noted. 

However, it is important to point out that there was little appetite among Canadians or Americans to see Canada join the US as its 51st state. 

Americans were twice as likely as Canadians to want Canada to become a part of the union with 49% supporting the idea while Canadians were far more skeptical. Only 25% noted that they supported the idea and this was largely among conservatives.  

Angus Reid noted that “one-in-10 Canadians overall say they would vote to join the U.S. in a referendum” but added that that proportion rose to 20% among 2021 Conservative voters and dropped to 3% among Liberals and 1% among New Democrats.

Another interesting discovery made by Angus Ried pollsters at the time found that even if Canada were to join the United States, not all Americans wanted Canada to be given full statehood status along with the citizenship and voting rights that accompany statehood. 

While 52% of American respondents said that Canada should get full statehood if the country joins the US a large minority indicated that Canada should be given a status similar to America’s territories rather than its states. 

“One-quarter instead say Canada should be relegated to a reduced status like that of Puerto Rico, which does not have congressional representation and whose residents are not able to vote in presidential elections,” Angus Reid reported. 

Trump supporters were also more interested than other Americans in seeing Canada become a US state. According to the data, 42% of Trump voters supported the idea compared to 32% who opposed it. 

“Those who voted for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris provide significantly more pushback, with just nine percent supporting the idea,” Angus Reid reported.

However, it is important to point out that it’s unlikely Canada would ever willingly join the United States as its 51st state, though questions about this topic will probably continue over the next four years. Whether it will spoil relations between the two nations has yet to be seen.

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