Discussions about the death penalty across Canada re-emerged in an unexpected setting: the Ontario provincial election campaign. Earlier this month, Ontario Premier Doug Ford appeared to discuss the punishment for home invaders who killed an innocent person by saying he would “send them right to Sparky”—a not-so-veiled reference to the electric chair.

Ford’s spokesperson ultimately acknowledged the premier’s “poor-taste joke” – but the perceptions of Canadians on a punishment that has not been in the books since 1976 can fluctuate wildly, depending on the question and the frame of mind of respondents.

Since 2020, Research Co. has been asking a battery of questions about the death penalty to Canadians on a yearly basis. This month, more than three in four (77 per cent) think capital punishment is “always appropriate” (14 per cent, unchanged since 2024) or “sometimes appropriate” (53 per cent, also unchanged). Only one in four Canadians (24 per cent, down two points) think of the death penalty as “never appropriate.”

In each of our surveys, we have seen at least 50 per cent of Canadians supporting the reinstatement of the death penalty for murder in Canada. This year, 54 per cent of Canadians are in favour of bringing back capital punishment—a three-point drop from........

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