Canadian pride strong, lower among youth ahead of Canada Day: report

As Canadians are getting ready to mark Canada Day on Wednesday, a new survey from Leger finds that national pride remains a strong point of connection across the country, but at the same time, questions about fairness remain.

Seventy-four per cent of those surveyed believe the country will still exist 50 years from now, with its current borders and provinces, but 26 per cent are unsure or don’t think so.

According to the survey, when you look at overall pride in Canada 84 percent of Canadians say they’re proud of their country with 51 per cent saying they’re very proud.

The Executive Vice President of Leger in Western Canada says they’ve seen a fairly stable pride increase in the past 3 years. But it got even higher when U.S. President Donald Trump began talking about tariffs.

However, when we look at specific age groups, like 18 to 34, those numbers drop 20 points lower than the national average.

“It’s a bit troublesome. We’ve seen this since [the Covid-19 pandemic]. Where youth in this country have felt a little bit disillusioned. They don’t have access to housing in the same way that their parents did, struggling in the job market and with expenses with inflation,” says Steve Mossop, executive vice president of Leger Vancouver.

“The pride numbers grow by age. So if you look at each of the age cohorts, they go up substantially to the over 65 group. That’s always been the case but the youth have been left behind.”

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