Catégorie oBox : OBOXMA

A poll released by the Angus Reid Institute has revealed that Canadians are torn about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first year in office. The poll covered a range of topics from Carney’s first year in power, including Canada’s international reputation, trade policy, Canada’s relationship with Donald Trump, ‘nation-building’ initiatives, election promises, affordability, and cost of living. The poll surveyed 2,013 Canadians, and showed that the country believes Carney has been very successful in some areas, while he has failed to meet expectations in others. In April 2025, Mark Carney’s Liberal Party pulled off a stunning comeback, overcoming a massive 20-point deficit against Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives. The Liberals capped off the shocking victory with the news that Pierre Poilievre had failed to retain his own seat in the ‘safe’ Conservative riding of Carlton, Ontario.

Improving Canada’s international reputation

The first question in the poll asked Canadians whether or not Carney had met expectations for improving Canada’s international reputation. Under Justin Trudeau, Canada’s relationship with global superpowers like China and India was seriously impacted, with both countries expressing their distaste for the leader. Since his election, Carney has made those two countries a priority while creating partnerships with what he calls ‘middle powers’. Carney signed new deals with China and India, and has continued to have consistent communication with both superpowers. An impressive 64 per cent of Canadians polled claimed Carney had either met or exceeded his expectations.

Trade policy/diversifying Canada’s trading partners + relationship with Trump

While Carney signed new deals with China and India, he’s been focusing his trade communication with ‘middle powers’. Carney has been visiting and signing deals with Nordic countries, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, among other European nations. Mark Carney revealed the plan to the world during his speech at Davos on January 29. The decision has gone over well with both Canadians and international markets. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sang Carney’s praises in February, claiming that: « With the international system under increasing pressure, we want to work together, and with our partners, to uphold and defend peace, security and prosperity ». Carney didn’t perform as well in this category amongst voters, but still boasted a 57 per cent approval rating. Carney didn’t perform well in the category rating his relationship with Trump, but still managed an approval rating of 56 per cent.

Nation-building initiatives

The final four categories are where Carney’s passing grade took a serious hit. During his campaign, Carney stressed his desire to undertake ‘nation-building initiatives’. His proposed initiatives included a new LNG pipeline, new nuclear programs, mineral mines, and, most importantly, government-funded houses. Unfortunately, very few of his proposed projects have begun, and the project Canadians were most looking forward to (government-built houses) has not seen any progress. Carney launched the program ‘Build Canada Homes’ in September 2025, but construction has yet to start in any province. Carney’s goal is to build 500,00 homes annually, targeting 3 million new homes in the next six years. Only 11 per cent of Canadians believe Carney has exceeded expectations in ‘nation-building’, and 40 per cent believe he has failed to meet expectations.

With Carney failing to garner Canadians’ praise for his nation-building projects, it’s not surprising that Canadians are disappointed in his success in keeping election promises. ‘Build Canada Homes’ was arguably Carney’s biggest campaign promise. He assured Canadians he would tackle housing affordability by building affordable, rent-controlled homes for families. Rent prices have increased nearly 40 per cent over the last ten years, and have risen dramatically since COVID. Only 34 per cent of polled Canadians believe Carney has met his election promises, and 41 per cent believe he has failed to meet expectations.

Improving housing affordability and reducing the cost of living

The final two categories for section one were closely related. Canadians were asked about Carney’s role in improving housing affordability and how successful he has been in reducing the cost of living for Canadians. To say that Carney failed these categories would be an understatement. Only 18 per cent of polled Canadians believe Carney has met expectations to improve the affordability of housing in Canada, and 67 per cent believe he has failed. His reviews were even worse in regard to Canada’s cost of living. According to the poll, 70 per cent of Canadians believe Carney has failed to make Canada more affordable, and just 2 per cent believe he has exceeded his expectations. For a study that polled 2,013 Canadians, only 40 believed that Carney has succeeded in his mission of affordability.

The Prime Minister announced progress in the partnership between BCH and @OttawaCity, strengthening a shared plan to accelerate the delivery of affordable and mixed-income housing across the city.

Learn more: https://t.co/eIfiWUmhpc pic.twitter.com/Fx8Eyjqy1y

— Build Canada Homes (@BuildCanHomes) April 23, 2026

Canada on the ‘wrong track’ according to Canadians

While Carney’s grades were overall positive (he still boasts an approval rating of 58 per cent, though it has sunk 5 per cent over the last year), Canadians didn’t give him a vote of confidence. Overall, 42 per cent of Canadians believe that Canada is on the wrong track after a year of Carney at the helm. The Angus Reid Institute divided that statistic by voter base, breaking down the overall percentage. While an impressive 75 per cent of CPC voters believe Canada is on the wrong track, 64 per cent of Liberal Party voters believe the country is on the right track. Where the vote becomes split is with NDP and BQ (Bloc Québécois) voters. With Carney passing stricter immigration laws, cutting the carbon tax, and taking a leaf out of the CPC’s book, 33 per cent of polled NDP supporters believe Canada is on the wrong track. BC voters were even harsher, with 39 per cent believing Canada is going down the wrong path.

Overall grades

It’s clear that Mark Carney has succeeded in some places and faltered in others. His problem is the areas he has failed to exceed expectations in, which are the issues at the forefront of Canadian’s minds. Fifty-two per cent of Canadians believe reducing the cost of living should be Carney’s primary focus, blowing every other category out of the water. The simple solution is to listen to voters. Carney spent his first year travelling the world, meeting with leaders, and trying to alleviate the pressure of Donald Trump’s tariff-driven trade war. He succeeded, managing to sign deals with multiple countries in order to move away from American reliance. Now, he needs to turn his focus to Canada. With a 58 per cent approval rating and a newly formed majority government, Carney should be able to make progress on investments for affordability. It’s certainly the plan that he’s been advertising over the last 12 months.

US President Donald Trump announced on April 29 that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a 90-minute phone call to discuss the possibility of a ceasefire to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. The war, which Russia started in February 2022, when the country attempted to invade multiple Ukrainian border cities. In the four years that have followed, Ukraine has proven that it will not roll over quietly. As of April 2026, Russia has experienced nearly double the number of military casualties as Ukraine has. Ukrainian forces have killed more than 300,000 Russian troops, representing nearly a third of all active servicemembers from 2022. Total Russian casualties (wounded and killed) exceed 1.2 million troops. In Ukraine, Russia has only managed to dispatch 100,000 Ukrainian troops, less than a third of the country’s own death toll.

‘A good talk’

The 90-minute call was the first official call between the two leaders since March 9, 2026, but Donald Trump has indicated that he and Putin speak regularly. Trump told reporters that the two had a good talk, adding that “I’ve known him a long time”. Trump spoke to reporters on April 29 while hosting astronauts from the recent Artemis II mission. According to Trump, he recommended that Putin sign a ‘little bit of a ceasefire’, and claimed to reporters that he believes Putin will do so.  Putin announced a three-day truce last year, but it went unsigned by Kyiv.

Putin offers help in Iran

A ceasefire in Ukraine was not the only topic Trump and Putin discussed. According to Trump, Putin also offered to help ‘deal with’ Iran’s reported stockpile of enriched uranium. Trump reportedly denied the offer, instead telling Putin he would rather end Putin’s war before Putin helps with Iran.

« I ​said, before you help ​me, I want ⁠to end your war – I’d much rather have you be involved with ending the war with Ukraine. »

Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov did not confirm what proposals Russia made regarding Iran, but Russia has previously offered to remove uranium from Iran and hold it in Russia. It’s unsurprising that even Donald Trump, who has proved to be a staunch ally of Putin’s dictatorship, doesn’t want to give Russia thousands of pounds of enriched uranium. Russia already reportedly possesses the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons.

Russia’s war on Ukraine

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, at least 2 million people have been killed – mostly military personnel – and another million displaced from both sides, making it the most deadly conflict of the 21st century. The US government is pressuring Ukraine to surrender control over the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine – an area that is mostly occupied by Russian forces. Ukraine and its European allies have firmly resisted the idea of handing over land. According to Trump, conceding land is the moral thing for Ukraine to do, as “a lot of people are dying,” and that apparently multiple Ukrainian “lieutenants” and Zelenskyy’s “top people” agree with the U.S. administration. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made his position clear: Ukraine is, and will always be, unwilling to concede its sovereign territory.

Donald Trump will, unfortunately, be a great factor in the solution of the war. Trump has been a long-time supporter of Putin (since 2007 when Trump sent him a congratulations letter), and a staunch critic of Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenskyy. Trump has repeatedly insulted Zelenskyy, as have his officials. Trump has asked Ukraine to cede land, and has called the capital Kyiv ‘mostly destroyed’. Trump implied that Ukraine should give up its fight multiple times and bend the knee to the Russian invasion. Modern Ukraine was founded on August 24, 1991, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

A new poll sponsored by the Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos has been released showing that Americans do not approve of Donald Trump’s new ballroom, with some surveyed before the announcement that the $400 million ballroom will now be funded by taxpayer dollars. The poll surveyed 1,292 U.S. adults via online interview, and claims the margin of error is only 2.8 per cent. The interviews were conducted in English and Spanish, and the population studied was created to be a distillation of all of America’s demographics. The survey interviewed people from April 24-28, meaning some responses were collected before the April 25 White House Correspondents Dinner, and some after.

Donald’s dancehall

When Donald Trump got approval from Congress to demolish the East Wing of the White House in order to build a massive 90,000 sq ft ballroom, creating a space to hold more than double the capacity of the previous event space, Trump said the ballroom would cost $400 million to be built, and achieved congressional approval by claiming that all $400 million would be coming from private donations and from Trump’s personal wealth. After an armed suspect rushed the lobby of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner at the Washington Hilton on April 25, Donald Trump claimed that the ballroom needed to be pushed forward.

Just days later, Lindsay Graham submitted a bill to Congress requesting $332 million of taxpayer dollars to finish funding the ballroom. According to Graham, Trump only received $68 million in donations, a far cry from the $400 million he expected. The timeline of Donald Trump’s ballroom announcement would have almost certainly impacted this poll, but Ipsos has not confirmed this fact. Whether Trump’s switch-up on using taxpayer dollars for the ballroom impacted the poll or not, the results were overwhelmingly opposing the President’s wishes.

Trump released multiple statements on Truth Social alongside his speech on April 25, stating ““What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE,” Trump continued to claim that “This event would never have happened with the Militarily Top Secret Ballroom currently under construction at the White House.”

Voters disapprove

The survey found that 56 per cent of respondents are opposed to the project, which began in October 2025. The East Wing of the White House (often referred to as the heart of the White House) has lain in ruin for more than six months, with construction equipment marring the view of DC’s Diamond. Less than 30 per cent of respondents said that they support the project and 16 per cent did not answer the question. The number of people who abstained from answering the question was the same percentage that refused the question in October. What’s more, 47 per cent of respondents claimed that they ‘strongly opposed’ Trump’s plan.

Additional questions

The survey also included questions about Trump’s proposed 250-foot arch between the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, the plan to print Trump’s signature on paper money, and asked respondents whether they were a supporter of the MAGA movement. Fifty-two per cent of respondents oppose Trump’s massive archway, with 41 per cent strongly opposing it. A whopping 68 per cent of respondents disagreed with Trump’s signature on their money, with 52 per cent in strong opposition. Finally, a shocking 71 per cent of respondents claimed they are not a fan of the MAGA movement. With 32 per cent of respondents having voted for Trump, it means at least 38 of the 1,292 people surveyed who voted for Trump no longer identify as MAGA supporters.

“What happened last night is exactly the reason that our great Military, Secret Service, Law Enforcement and, for different reasons, every President for the last 150 years, have been DEMANDING that a large, safe, and secure Ballroom be built ON THE GROUNDS OF THE WHITE HOUSE.”

-U.S. President, Donald Trump on Truth Social

As Trump’s approval numbers continue to sink, polls like this try to shed light on how his voter base views his actions. After the legendary analytics firm Gallup announced in February that it would cease its famous presidential approval rating poll after 88 years of informing American voters. Gallup polls consistently showed Trump’s approval numbers dipping to record-breaking lows, and the President made multiple disapproving comments about Gallup as an organization before cancelling the legendary service.

In total, the Washington Post, ABC News and Ipsos poll included 37 questions, but 33 have been held back from publication for unnamed reasons. The remaining 33 questions will be released, but Ipsos has not said when. As of now, the pending answers are ‘held for release’.