17% reported no hope about Canadian democracy in 2024 study

Most people in Canada said they felt at least some hope about how democracy works, but 17% reported feeling no hope at all, according to a Statistics Canada study released September 29.

The findings describe spring 2024 survey responses from people aged 15 and older, not current sentiment. Seventy-one per cent said they were a little or somewhat hopeful, while 12% were very hopeful.

Hopefulness was strongly associated with confidence in institutions and trust in information sources. Among people who were very hopeful, 67% reported high confidence in the federal Parliament, compared with 38% of those who were a little or somewhat hopeful and 11% of those who were not at all hopeful. High trust in news outlets ranged from 59% in the very hopeful group to 17% in the not-at-all-hopeful group.

Reported voting in the 2021 federal election was similar across the groups. However, people who were not at all hopeful were more likely to report other political activity during the previous 12 months, including signing petitions and seeking information about political issues.

Source: official release dated September 29, 2026.

Illustrative stock image; not the reported event. Photo by Jason Hafso on Unsplash.