Division.

On 4 February 2022, Angus Reid reported that 37% of Canadians feel there is no room for political compromise. 48% disagree.

A July 2025 Digital Public Square survey, published 12 January 2026, puts the average rating of how polarized Canada feels at 6.5 out of 10. 30% say Canada is highly polarized, and 55% say polarization is getting worse.

Eric Merkley’s 2026 book examines “the growing affective polarization and inter-partisan hostility in Canada,” including Conservative supporters “antagonistic towards Liberal and NDP voters and vice versa.”

In a 12 September 2024 release, 48% say the Conservatives have shifted right and 43% say the Liberals have moved left. 36% call themselves political orphans, including 47% of people who place themselves in the middle, and 48% say no option really represents their views.

MPs said cross-party collaboration declined in the 42nd Parliament, and that House debate was empty and repetitive. Heckling did not decrease.

A summer 2024 survey published on 28 October 2025 says Canada’s divisions “are much less intense than in the U.S.” and that Canadians “express moderate levels” of affective polarization. It says this is “not about policy differences,” and that political differences “haven’t yet deeply divided us.”

Left–right polarization in Canada is much less pronounced than in the United States.

A 20 October 2022 Policy Options article says “Canadians generally are not getting more extreme in our views.” It reports Eric Merkley saying Canadians are not growing more polarized along a left-right ideological spectrum.

In the Digital Public Square survey, 40% identified as right-leaning, 30% as left-leaning and 30% as in the centre. On a 7-point scale, 66% placed themselves in the three centrist positions, 7% on the far right and 5% on the far left.

A 2010 article by Christopher Cochrane says Canada’s left/right ideological divide “is wide by cross-national standards.”

Scholars define wedge politics as “a calculated political tactic aimed at using divisive social issues to gain political support, weaken opponents and strengthen control over the political agenda.” They write that the tactic aims at undermining an opponent’s support base.

A study of House of Commons debates from 2006 to 2011 finds that a party used one issue to create divisions among opposing MPs and among voters of other parties. It finds that this effort won new support in the 2011 election, especially among cross-pressured voters and in the ridings targeted in those debates.

A 20 October 2022 Policy Options article reports Eric Merkley on a tendency for media pundits and political parties to whittle complex policy debates into binary contests: “left versus right, government versus opposition; the elite versus the people.”

A study of Question Period from April 2006 to June 2021 finds significant incivility, especially insults and toxicity, and finds that this incivility increases as the next general election approaches. The authors write that one return can be increased support from a party’s own base.