How you feel about Canada might depend on how you feel about your bank account.
Canadians are feeling less patriotic than usual these days, an Angus Reid Institute poll released in December suggests. And there's a good chance a person worried about the cost of living and other personal finance issues is also questioning the current state of Canada, according to the poll.
When asked how proud they are to be Canadian, just over a third of people surveyed in the poll, which was conducted from Nov. 29 to Dec. 5, said they were "very proud," compared to 52 per cent who said the same in a 2016 poll.
Women and men over age 54 were more likely to be proud of Canada (over two-thirds) than women and men under age 35 (less than half).
For Saskatchewan respondents, the decline was even steeper. In 2016, 87 per cent of people polled in Saskatchewan said they were "very proud" of Canada, but that fell to 59 per cent in 2024 — the largest drop in any province, according to Angus Reid.
But the poll doesn't leave much room for nuance, so the results might appear more extreme than reality, said University of Saskatchewan assistant professor Daniel Westlake.
Daniel Westlake, an assistant professor in the department of political studies at University of Saskatchewan, cautions against reading too much into the poll results. (Pratyush Dayal/CBC)"The headline from the poll is still that most people are either unconditionally proud to be Canadian or conditionally proud to be Canadian," Westlake said.
"Nobody's talking about the country breaking up. Nobody wants to join the United States.… So I think we have to be careful of over-interpreting this stuff."
About six per cent of people polled said they think Canada should join the United States, mirroring something U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has mused about since his election.
While that's up four percentage points since 2016, Westlake advises against reading too much into it, because the difference is negligible based on the margin of error.
Outside a Saskatoon shopping centre, opinions matched the division suggested by the poll.
"It's tough to get by," said Eddie Moen, who lives in the Colonsay area, just east of Saskatoon. "Everything is harder to do these days. I don't really know what it is. Everything just seems kind of sad around here lately."
But Moen feels some optimism after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation, and with a federal election coming up.
"We're stuck, and it's been that way for a while now," Moen said. "I think an election is probably needed. I think everyone is ready for a change."
But Saskatoon resident Rhonda Reddekopp isn't keen on the changes that might come with a new government.
"I'm worried," said Reddekopp, who isn't a fan of the federal Conservative Party. "I'm dreading that day."
Reddekopp is one of the voters still in the "proud of Canada" camp.
"I love being a Canadian, especially when we travel," she said. "Everyone has more respect for you. We have respect for others too. It's wonderful, and I wouldn't have it any other way."
Canadians are feeling less patriotic, at least according to an Angus Reid national survey that asked people if they have a deep emotional attachment to the country. Almost half answered no. People in Saskatchewan were even less keen on Canada.But Destiny Kohl doesn't feel as proud of Canada as she used to.
"Especially with how hard it is to live," she said. "We just moved out on our own, and it's hard experiencing how expensive everything is, like rent. It used to be good to live here, but now it's kind of pricey."
The Angus Reid poll suggests a connection between income level and Canadian pride. People with incomes below $25,000 were less likely to be proud of Canada (48 per cent), while those with income above $200,000 were more likely (65 per cent), according to the poll.
Westlake is not surprised that one's finances might influence their love of country.
"Cost of living is up, access to health care and access to doctors is something a lot of people are struggling with. Housing prices are up," Westlake said.
"We're coming out of a period of quite significant inflation. So you have a bunch of these things that hit people in their pocketbooks that tend to shape public opinion in all types of situations that probably reflect poorly on incumbent governments."
The Angus Reid survey involved a randomized sample of 4,004 Canadian adults who are members of the online Angus Reid Forum.
A margin of error cannot be assigned because online polls are not considered to be truly random samples, but for comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of plus or minus 1.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, according to Angus Reid.
For Saskatchewan-specific results, the comparable margin of error would be five per cent for the 2024 survey and seven per cent for the 2016 survey.