Ballot questions: which issues mattered most to voters in the 2025 federal election?

Ballot questions: which issues mattered most to voters in the 2025 federal election?

As part of its Focus Canada public opinion research program (launched in 1976), the Environics Institute examined the ballot questions for the April 2025 federal election by asking voters to identify which issue was the most important to them personally in choosing which party to support.

The results show that, while many voters were motivated by their concerns about Canada-U.S. relations and the American president, these issues did not completely displace economic ones. Alongside these issues, leadership was also an important factor. The relative importance of each of these issues, however, varied significantly among different groups of voters. Economic and affordability issues appealed more to Conservative Party supporters, while Liberal Party supporters were more focused on relations with the United States. There was also a significant difference in the preoccupations of different generations, with younger voters being much more focused on the economy and the cost of living.

Read the report.

For more information, contact Dr. Andrew Parkin.

The Spring 2025 Focus Canada survey is based on telephone interviews conducted (via landline and cellphones) with 2,000 Canadians between May 5 and 18, 2025. A sample of this size drawn from the population produces results accurate to within plus or minus 2.2 percentage points in 19 out of 20 samples.