Majorities in Canada view US as top threat, top ally: Survey
Canadians point to America as both their country’s top threat and its greatest ally, according to Pew Research Center data released Tuesday.
The survey, conducted during the first four months of this year, asked residents of 25 countries to name the nation they think poses the greatest threat to their own, as well as the nation they think is their most important ally.
Only in Canada do majorities place America at the top of both lists: 55 percent say most important ally and 59 percent say the greatest threat.
America is ranked at the top of Mexico’s two lists as well, but only a plurality — 37 percent — calls the U.S. Mexico’s top ally, while an overwhelming majority — 68 percent — says America is the No. 1 threat that Mexico faces.
In three other countries, pluralities call the U.S. their top threat as well as their greatest ally: Argentina, Brazil and Kenya, where the U.S. is tied first on both lists.
Twelve of the 24 non-U.S. countries call the U.S. their greatest ally. In addition to the four mentioned earlier, these countries include Israel, South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, Australia and India.
Three countries have the U.S. tied in the top spot for greatest ally. In addition to Kenya, the countries include Nigeria and Hungary.
America tops the “greatest threat” list for six countries, including four mentioned earlier, as well as South Africa and Indonesia. Spain and Kenya have America tied in first place as the greatest threat.
The survey was conducted before and immediately after President Trump announced and paused sweeping tariffs on individual countries.
While Canada has long been America’s closest ally, Trump’s public musings about making Canada the 51st state of America have not been well received by the neighbors to the north. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s resistance to Trump’s message is often credited as a catalyst to his election victory, which had once been seen as a long shot.
The surveys included 28,333 adults from 25 countries and were conducted from Jan. 8 to April 26. The margins of error for the country-specific surveys range from 2.5 to 4.7 percentage points.