Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has been rated Canada's second least popular premier in a March 2025 poll by the Angus Reid Institute. (Photo: Pattison Media)

By David Opinko

Danielle Smith’s approval rating flat as many other premiers increase

Mar 25, 2025 | 10:25 AM

A new poll shows that the popularity of several Canadian premiers has changed significantly this past quarter, while others stayed relatively the same.

The Angus Reid Institute has released its Premiers’ Performance poll for March 2025.

A new survey shows how popular each of Canada’s premiers are among their own constituents. (Photo: Angus Reid Institute)

In the wake of U.S. tariffs, some premiers like Newfoundland and Labrador’s Andrew Furey (+22%) and Doug Ford from Ontario (+14%) have seen major improvements in how their constituents view them.

Ford, who is also the Chair of the Council of the Federation, was referred to by the New York Times as “Captain Canada” for how he responded to U.S. President Donald Trump.

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Furey was rated as the most popular premier with a 68 per cent approval rating. However, his resignation in February means he will not be included in next quarter’s survey.

For Alberta’s Danielle Smith, she stayed put with a 46 per cent favourability rating, increasing by just one per cent from the previous quarter. Albertans rated her:

• Strongly approve: 22%
• Moderately approve: 24%
• Moderately disapprove: 10%
• Strongly disapprove: 40%
  • This was the highest “strongly disapprove” rating of all Canadian premiers
• Not sure: 4%

Overall, Smith was rated as the second least popular premier in March, ahead of Quebec’s Francois Legault.

The Angus Reid Institute says Alberta’s political leader spent the early part of 2025 trying to have “friendly and productive” conversations with Trump and was briefly the lone holdout of the “Team Canada” approach to the trade conflict.

They say she has been one of the most visible premiers on the U.S. file since the first tariff threats were levied. Compared to Doug Ford, however, the polling agency says Smith has benefitted little from this.

Smith was also recently named in a wrongful dismissal lawsuit by the former head of Alberta Health Services Athana Mentzelopoulos.

Since being sworn in as Alberta’s premier, Smith’s approval rating has consistently stayed between 42 and 47 per cent.

The survey included 399 respondents from Alberta.

The full report on the Premier’s Performance poll is on AngusReid.org.

The Angus Reid Institute conducted an online survey from March 13-16, 2025 among a representative randomized sample of 4,009 Canadian adults who are members of Angus Reid Forum. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding. The survey was self-commissioned and paid for by ARI.