A Angus Reid Institute Survey has found that half (51 percent) of Canadians surveyed say Canada should provide aid to Cuba “despite the potential to further alter the relationship between the United States and Canada.”
Three in 10 (31 per cent) believe Canada should avoid actions that would potentially further draw the ire of US President Donald Trump, as “maintaining positive relations with the Trump administration should be more important.”
Trump said he was considering a “friendly takeover” of Cuba on Feb. 27, 2026, after the United States blocked the island’s main fuel supplier.
“The Cuban government is talking to us and is in big trouble,” Trump said as he left the White House to travel to Texas. “They have no money. They have nothing right now, but they are talking to us and maybe we will have a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
Cuba is in the midst of a fuel shortage and humanitarian crisis, the latest in many years of economic hardship. Trump effectively cut off oil shipments to the island by blockading Venezuela and threatening to impose tariffs on any country that stepped in to fill the gap.
‘Canadians’ knowledge of the current crisis in Cuba is below average compared to many recent news events’
Cuba’s ambassador to Canada, Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, said on February 24 that the United States is “suffocating an entire people.”
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“Collective punishment of an entire nation is an unjustifiable crime. You can disagree with the country’s political project, but there is no right that justifies a great power – based on its economic and military power – interfering in its internal affairs, violating its independence,” said Díaz.
“Much less acceptable is that a superpower tries to achieve its objectives by suffocating an entire people.”
In response, Canada sent $8 million in food aid to Cuba.
One-third (34 per cent) of Canadians surveyed believe Canada’s support is sufficient; and a third (32 percent) “want[ing] his country to do more to help.”
There were also one in five (19 per cent) who believe Canada “should be doing less than that or not have sent that aid at all.”
The survey also found that “Canadians’ awareness of the current crisis in Cuba is below average compared to many recent news events.”
Half of Canadians (51 percent) say they follow the story in Cuba “very closely” (14 percent) or “closely” (38 percent). A third (36 percent) say they are reading the headlines.
Global Affairs Canada has warned travelers for more than a year about “shortages of essential items, including food, medicine and fuel,” in most of Cuba.
The island lost its main source of fuel in January when the United States seized control of Venezuela’s oil reserves, and Washington threatened to impose tariffs on countries that send fuel to Cuba.
Canadians and Americans still disagree
Tensions between Canada and the United States have continued to sour with Trump’s annexation threats towards Canada and tariffs imposed until 2025.
An Ipsos survey from September 2025 found that six in ten Canadians (60 percent) say the country “will never be able to trust Americans in the same way again.”
Seventy-one per cent also believe that the trade and economic disputes Canada faces with the United States “will persist for several years and will not be resolved soon.”
A February 2026 Politico poll also found that 58 percent of Canadians surveyed said they “no longer see the United States as a reliable ally,” and 42 percent went so far as to say the United States is not an ally at all.
43 percent also said they view the United States as “primarily a threat” to global stability.
-With files from Sean Boynton
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
