Statistics Canada released Taking the pulse: Perceptions of democracy in Canada (published Sept. 29, 2026) using responses collected for the 2024 Survey Series on People and their Communities. Among residents aged 15 and older, 12% described themselves as very hopeful about how democracy works, 71% said they were a little or somewhat hopeful, and 17% said they were not at all hopeful. These figures are self-reported and reflect associations in the survey data, not measures of causal change or a new public-opinion poll for 2026.
The agency’s reporting also showed differences in trust in federal institutions across hopefulness groups: 67% of those who were very hopeful reported high confidence in the federal parliament, compared with 11% among those who were not at all hopeful. Statistics Canada noted reported voting rates in the 2021 federal election were similar across the hopefulness categories, while other forms of political participation were higher among the least hopeful respondents.
