Together, we have spent years around federal cabinet tables led by different prime ministers from different political parties. We know how quickly policy challenges become partisan choices: Defence or development? Economic interests or Canadian values? The United States or new trading partners?

These contrasts can sharpen debate. They can also distort it. The world Canada must navigate today rarely offers tidy choices.

However, a new national deliberative poll suggests Canadians may be less inclined toward those either/or divisions than political debate sometimes implies.

This spring, 7,491 Canadians completed an online baseline survey on Canada’s role in the world. In keeping with the principles of a deliberative poll, a representative group of 408 was then randomly selected to participate in online small-group discussions about foreign policy choices facing Canada. The research, Foreign Policy by Canadians 2026, was conducted by Global Canada in collaboration with Stanford University’s Deliberative Democracy Lab.

The 408 participants reviewed balanced information, discussed competing arguments, questioned experts and, afterwards, completed the survey again for comparison.

The study built on a similar exercise first conducted in 2021, but this year’s version took place in a markedly different world. Canada’s largest trading relationship is less predictable, pressure to invest in defence has intensified, and long-held assumptions about the country’s security and influence are being reconsidered.

Finding common ground

The participants did not emerge with one simple doctrine. Nor did........

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