Who is most likely to feel pride for the military and fight for the country? Here’s what a survey found

Canadian military members are shown in Calgary ahead of the G7 summit on June 2, 2025. (Dave Chidley / The Canadian Press)

Fewer Canadians feel proud of the military despite a surge in patriotism this year following tensions with the Trump administration over tariffs and annexation threats, a new survey has found.

“While pride in Canada has risen in the wake of the existential threats to the country uttered by U.S. President Donald Trump, it trails highs seen four decades earlier, when there was also more willingness from Canadians to fight for their country,” the non-profit Angus Reid Institute reported in its survey released Thursday.

Fifty-two per cent of respondents in the June survey said they feel proud when they think about the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) compared to 79 per cent in November 2019.

Meanwhile, the percentage of people surveyed who said they do not feel proud when they think about Canada’s Armed Forces rose to 31 per cent from 12 per cent six years ago.

The survey also found that those aged 18 to 34 are less likely, at 43 per cent, to say they foresee an armed conflict that would compel them to volunteer for military service in a combat role. Meanwhile, the respondents most willing to enlist are older than age 54 at 55 per cent.

Despite the dip in military pride among respondents and a decline in support among younger people for the military, the Canadian Armed Forces saw about 1,000 more applications since the start of the second Trump administration earlier this year compared to the same time last year, CTV News’ Rachel Aiello reported in February.

Pascal Belhumeur, commander of Military Personnel Generation Group, told CTV News at the time that the CAF didn’t track the reasons why those recruits joined although it came amid the growing patriotism sparked by Trump’s threats to annex Canada as the 51st state.

Still, the new Angus Reid data found that 49 per cent of Canadians are willing to fight for their country in the event of an armed conflict, while 39 per cent would not do so and 12 per cent were not sure.

Among those who said they were willing to volunteer, 30 per cent said they would only do so if they “agreed with the reasons for fighting,” while 19 per cent said they would enlist if the country needed them.

Those who voted Conservative in the April federal election were more likely than other voters to say they would volunteer for a combat role at 59 per cent. Support for enlisting was 47 per cent for Liberal voters, 36 per cent for NDP voters and 35 per cent for Bloc Quebecois voters. Among Liberal voters surveyed, 41 per cent said they would not volunteer compared to 47 per cent who said they would.

‘We cannot do business as usual with the Americans’

Frederic Labarre, a lecturer at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ont., whose expertise is in security and defence studies, told CTVNews.ca that the decline in pride for the military “is not very surprising.”

Labarre believes factors such as sexual assault and misconduct scandals have eroded the public’s trust in the forces.

But he said it’s also important that Canadians understand the world they live in amid conflicts in Europe as one example.

“We cannot do business as usual with the Americans and they are the main adversary right now when it concerns Canadian sovereignty,” Labarre said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca on Thursday. “(Prime Minister Mark) Carney is right when he says that the rule of international law is eroding so fast that we will need to be armed because we are advancing rapidly in a world where might makes right.

“So if we don’t want to end up under the control of somebody else, we need to develop our own forces and to take the measures necessary to protect our sovereignty and the existence of Canada as we know it today.”

Methodology

The Angus Reid Institute conducted an online survey from June 20 to 23, 2025, among a randomized sample of 1,619 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum. The sample was weighted to be representative of adults nationwide according to region, gender, age, household income, and education, based on the Canadian census. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding. The survey was self-commissioned and paid for by ARI.