Democracy and the fairness of elections in Canada

The AmericasBarometer 2025 Survey in Canada provides an opportunity to measure support for democracy and elections in Canada in the aftermath of the spring election campaign. The biennial study has been tracking satisfaction with democracy, using a consistent method, since 2010, with additional questions on trust in elections added since then.

This year, the survey finds that the level of satisfaction with the way democracy works in Canada has seen a modest increase, while overall trust in elections has held stable. However, it also finds that fewer Canadians are confident that votes are always counted fairly in Canada, or that foreign governments never influence our election results.

Satisfaction with democracy, trust in elections, and the sense that votes are always counted fairly, have all declined steadily and significantly among Conservative Party supporters since the party lost power a decade ago – and in the context of four consecutive election losses. Despite this, seven in ten Conservative Party supporters continue to hold that “democracy is preferable to any other form of government,” and the same proportion agrees that “election results should be respected regardless of which candidate or party wins.”

Taken together, these results suggest that, while there may be growing frustration with aspects of the democratic process in Canada among opposition party supporters, this does not necessarily amount to a weakening of support for democracy itself. Yet, steps should be taken to reinforce overall public confidence in the way votes are received and counted (including mail-in ballots), and in the way candidate selection and elections are insulated from foreign interference.

Read the report.

Key findings

• Seven in ten Canadians (70%) say they are either very satisfied or satisfied with the way democracy works in Canada. This represents a modest five-point rebound from 2023. Relatively few Canadians, however, are very satisfied with the way their democracy works.

•  Satisfaction remains highest among supporters of the Liberal Party. It is much lower among Conservative Party supporters, and has been declining consistently since that party lost power in 2015. For the first time, Conservative Party supporters are now more or less equally divided between those who are satisfied and dissatisfied with the way democracy works in Canada.

• Regionally, satisfaction with the way democracy works in Canada is highest in Quebec and lowest in Alberta. This is a reversal of the situation in 2010, when satisfaction was lowest in Quebec and highest in Alberta.

• When presented with three statements about democracy, at least seven in ten supporters of each of the three main federal parties favour the one most supportive of democracy, namely that “democracy is preferable to any other form of government.” And, in this case, there has been only a modest decline in the proportion of Conservative Party supporters who favour this statement.

• The overall proportion of Canadians with high trust in elections in this country has remained fairly stable since 2017. However, the trend differs among supporters of the different federal political parties.

• Supporters of the federal Liberal Party are the most likely to have high trust in elections, and this proportion is slightly higher in 2025 than it was in 2019. Conversely, supporters of the Conservative Party are less likely to express high trust in elections, and this proportion has fallen notably since 2019.

• The proportion of Canadians who say that votes are always counted correctly and fairly in Canada has been declining, dropping 10 percentage points (from 64% to 54%) since this question was first asked in 2021. The proportions saying that the rich never buy election results in this country, or that foreign government never influence our election results, have also declined since 2021.

• The decline of trust in elections among Conservative Party supporters is accompanied by a larger than average decline in the proportion of these supporters who say that votes are always counted correctly and fairly in Canada.
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• Three in four Canadians agree that “election results should be respected regardless of which candidate or party wins.” Agreement is highest among Liberal Party and Bloc Québécois supporters, and somewhat lower among supporters of the NDP and the Conservative Party. But, in this case, seven in ten Conservative Party supporters agree, and fewer than one in ten disagree (two in ten neither agree nor disagree).

The AmericasBarometer is a regular comparative survey of democratic values and behaviours that covers countries in North, Central and South America, as well as a significant number of countries in the Caribbean (the 2025-26 study will cover 20 countries). The project is led by the LAPOP Lab at Vanderbilt University’s Center for Global Democracy (CGD). The Canadian survey was conducted by the Environics Institute for Survey Research, in partnership with CGD’s LAPOP Lab at Vanderbilt University and with the support of the Max Bell Foundation.

The survey was conducted online with a sample of 3,550 Canadians (aged 18 and over) between July 30 and August 7, 2025. The results are weighted by region, age, gender, education and language so as to be fully representative of the Canadian population.