Abacus Data Poll: How do Nova Scotians feel about Trump’s tariffs?
March 31, 2025
We’re back with some more polling results and analysis from Nova Scotia.
We recently surveyed 600 Nova Scotian adults about world events, as well as federal and provincial politics through our new Nova Scotia omnibus.
We love Atlantic Canada! As part of our continued investment in the region, we have established a new Nova Scotia omnibus survey that we intend to run on a regular basis. New and existing clients can now add questions to our Nova Scotia omnibus, giving you the data and insights you need to make good decisions in this uncertain time.
600 cases is a nice, healthy sample in Nova Scotia, giving us lots of interesting material to share.
Below you will find the results to some questions we asked specifically about Donald Trump and the U.S. trade war.
As you will see, these results are full of emotion. They demonstrate just how angry people in this part of the country are about Trump’s threats to our economy and sovereignty as the 2025 federal election gets started. Spoiler: It’s red hot.
The anger and concern reported here also remind us how Canadians are feeling as the federal leaders criss-cross the country and their local candidates hit the doors, looking for votes.
As we shared last Monday, Mark Carney’s Liberals started the 2025 campaign with a 10-point lead over the Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives and a big advantage on the managing-Donald-Trump-issue in Nova Scotia.
Today’s release also highlights the strong relationship between feeling angry, betrayed, and worried about Trump’s tariffs and being a Liberal supporter in the province.
As we all brace for Trump’s April 2nd deadline and whatever comes next, one thing is for sure: Trump-anger – and the way the Carney Liberals are using it now – is a powerful political force in Nova Scotia and beyond.
Now to the results!
EMOTIONS BOILING OVER IN NOVA SCOTIA, THREE-QUARTERS ANGRY
Our latest results confirm that Nova Scotians are deeply troubled by Donald Trump’s threats to our economy and our sovereignty.
When asked to choose three words that describe how they currently feel about Trump’s tariffs from a list of options, 76% of Nova Scotians say they are “angry.”
Large shares also choose the words “worried,” “disappointed,” and “betrayed” from the list of options – language that describes varying degrees of sadness. The word “betrayed” is, of course, the strongest emotion in that group, suggesting a terrible mix of anger, sadness, and shock brought about by a breach of trust.
While not everyone is upset about Trump’s tariffs, the results for the words with positive connotations are in the single digits. Just 7% of Nova Scotians say they are “hopeful,” 6% say they are “content,” 4% say they are “thrilled,” and 3% say they are “happy.”
And only 12% choose the word “indifferent” from the list – the most neutral option provided.
WHAT ABOUT AGE & FEDERAL VOTE INTENTIONS?
While Nova Scotians are clearly frustrated by Trump’s tariffs, there are some interesting age dynamics and political differences in our provincial polling.
Consistent with our national research, the likelihood of being “angry” about Trump’s tariffs generally increases with age, with Baby Boomers (i.e. those age 60+) in Nova Scotia being far more likely to be angry about Trump’s tariffs than young Canadians (those age 18-24), by a difference of almost 20-points.
The same is true when it comes to feeling “betrayed.” Those age 45+ are far more likely to feel “betrayed” by Trump’s tariffs than those under 45 (68% vs. 51%), with that feeling the most common among Baby Boomers.
Some other key differences emerge when we look at the response by current vote intentions, which we tested in Nova Scotia in the same omnibus survey and released last week.
In Nova Scotia, those who are “angry” about Trump’s tariffs are far more likely to be committed Liberal and NDP voters than Conservative voters. A remarkable 85% of those who say they are “angry” about Trump’s tariffs also say they would vote Liberal if a federal election was held today, and an even larger proportion (89%) say they would vote NDP.
The comparable figure among decided Conservative voters in the province is 60%.
Liberal voters are also much more likely to say they feel “betrayed” and “worried” about Trump’s tariffs than NDP and Conservative voters, by significant margins.
All of these results help to explain why dealing with Donald Trump is such a powerful issue for the Carney Liberals in Nova Scotia as the election gets underway — which, by the way, is a province with many older residents, in a part of Canada that usually goes red.
DEALING WITH TRUMP NOW A TOP ISSUE IN NOVA SCOTIA
As our regular readers know, the need to deal with Donald Trump and his administration has quickly gone from being a middle-of-list issue for Canadians to being a top issue in recent months in our national polling. That’s also true in Nova Scotia, with 45% of Nova Scotians now considering Trump one of the two most important issues facing Canada and Canadians today.
Older Nova Scotians (like older Canadians) are also a bit more likely to view Trump and his administration as a top issue than younger Nova Scotians, whereas younger Nova Scotians are a bit more inclined to view the cost of living as a top issue than older Nova Scotians.
These same age differences are surfacing in our national polls, with two big desires – the desire for change and the desire for security – clashing and competing for attention as the 2025 federal election begins.
NET IMPRESSION OF -70 FOR DONALD TRUMP IN NOVA SCOTIA
Personal impressions of Donald Trump are also overwhelmingly negative in Nova Scotia, with a remarkable 81% percent of the population currently holding a negative impression of the American President, giving him a net impression score of -70. This is more evidence of the strong, negative emotions that Canadians are feeling as Trump continues to attack our country through his words and actions.
For comparison, all of Canada’s federal party leaders are much better regarded, with Mark Carney, the current Prime Minister, being the most popular national leader right now with a net impression score of +14 in Nova Scotia. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has a -20 in the province. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh has a -6. And Elizabeth May has a +10.
MORE TRUMP CHAOS AND UNCERTAINTY EXPECTED
How seriously are Nova Scotians taking Trump’s words and actions these days? The short answer is: very seriously.
Whereas many of us started this year thinking that the American President’s words were nothing more than overblown rhetoric, dismissing it as that is much less common now.
According to our latest research, 76% of Nova Scotians believe that Donald Trump genuinely wants Canada to become part of the United States. That’s exactly the same proportion who say they are “angry” about Trump’s tariffs, as discussed earlier in this post.
Four-in-five Nova Scotians (80%) also expect the whole Trump Presidency to be as chaotic and threatening to Canada as the first few months have been.
And both of those beliefs are now widespread in Nova Scotia, with little-to-no variances between demographic groups.
BUT… IT’S HARD TO KEEP TRACK OF THINGS!
Given the frenetic nature of Trump’s threats as well as the big policy reversals that we have seen on both sides of border in recent weeks, we were also curious to see how Nova Scotians are coping (or not coping) with the wicked pace and tremendous volume of information that’s coming at them about Trump and the U.S. trade war through the Canadian news outlets and social media every day.
There’s also broad consensus here. Virtually everybody (88%) agrees that it’s hard to keep track of which tariffs are in place and which ones are coming, with those age 45 and older being slightly more likely to feel that way than those who are ages 18-44, and a tiny bit of gender difference.
As the federal election continues, it will be interesting to see if party leaders and their candidates are able to help more people sort through the things they’re reading, seeing, and hearing about the U.S. trade war – framing the conflict and its current state up for them in more definitive ways, while making the case that they are the best choice to manage Trump and lead the country through this challenging time.
Right now, Carney’s Liberals are doing a much better job of that than the other parties – with four weeks of the 2025 campaign still to go.
UPSHOT
As the 2025 federal election gets started, Nova Scotians agree far more than they disagree about Donald Trump, and they’re angry.
They’re angry about Trump’s words and his actions, with most Nova Scotians now seeing them as genuine attacks on our economy and our sovereignty.
While the top issue in Nova Scotia (and beyond) continues to be the rising cost of living, our latest polling shows that the terrible drama playing out north and south of the border is a major source of frustration for individuals of all ages and backgrounds. 88% of Nova Scotians also expect Trump’s chaos to continue, recognizing that this big, ugly problem will probably be with us for some time.
These red-hot feelings about Trump are also driving political choices in Nova Scotia, with Carney’s Liberals currently benefitting the most from Trump-induced anger and concern in the province, while Poilievre’s Conservatives stick to their plan of trying to make this election about the rising cost of living and alleviating that pain.
What will Mr. Trump do next? Who knows? We don’t.
With four more years to go in his Presidency, it seems pretty unlikely, that this issue, and it’s political velocity, will be going away.
Methodology
The survey was conducted with 600 adult Nova Scotians over the age of 18 from March 17 to 20, 2025. A random sample of panelists were invited to complete the survey from a set of partner panels based on the Lucid exchange platform. These partners are typically double opt-in survey panels, blended to manage out potential skews in the data from a single source.
The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 4.1%, 19 times out of 20.
The data were weighted according to census data to ensure that the sample matched Canada’s population according to age, gender, educational attainment, and region. Totals may not add up to 100 due to rounding.
This survey was paid for by Abacus Data Inc.
Abacus Data follows the CRIC Public Opinion Research Standards and Disclosure Requirements that can be found here: https://canadianresearchinsightscouncil.ca/standards/
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