As the 2025 Canadian federal election gets closer (and record-setting advance polls this weekend), it seems there's one dominant issue for people in Vancouver.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, U.S. President Donald Trump and his tariffs are top of mind for people in Vancouver, with 45 per cent of the local V.I.A. poll participants picking it as the top issue.
In second place is the somewhat related (but longer-term) issue of the cost of living. With massive inflation following the COVID-19 pandemic, everything in Canada (and globally) is costing more. For 26 per cent of locals, that was the priority.
The numbers are slightly different when taking into account poll participants from outside Vancouver. The top two issues are the same (and in fact all issues are in the same order), but cost of living is a little closer to Trump and his tariffs.
Trump, the tariffs, and the cost of living received about 71 per cent of the votes, whichever way you cut it.
Immigration and population issues finished a distant third, with 11–12 per cent of the vote, followed by housing, which is typically a big issue in Vancouver. But in the upcoming federal election, fewer than 10 per cent of locals think it's the most important issue.
Environmental issues have been growing in the public consciousness for the last few decades, but only 4 per cent of locals picked it as the priority. Other issues finished with between 4 and 5 per cent of participants.
The federal election process has begun with advance polls this weekend. The campaign and election will end with election day on April 28.
Recently, the federal leaders debate took place, with Liberal leader (and prime minister) Mark Carney facing off with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, and Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet.
Vancouver Is Awesome polled 4066 readers and asked the question: What issue is most important to you during the 2025 federal election?
The poll ran from 3/24/2025 to 4/19/2025. Of the 4066 votes, we can determine that 1432 are from within the community. The full results are as follows:
Results are based on an online study of adult Vancouver Is Awesome readers that are located in Vancouver. The margin of error - which measures sample variability - is +/- 1.53%, 19 times out of 20.
Vancouver Is Awesome uses a variety of techniques to capture data, detect and prevent fraudulent votes, detect and prevent robots, and filter out non-local and duplicate votes.
