Will sending aid to Cuba anger U.S.? Half of Canadians say ‘so what?’: survey

An Angus Reid Institute survey has found that half (51 per cent) of surveyed Canadians say Canada should provide aid to Cuba “despite the potential of further upsetting the U.S.-Canada relationship.”

Three-in-10 (31 per cent) believe Canada should avoid actions that would potentially further draw the ire of U.S. 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 U.S. blockaded the island’s main fuel supplier.

“The Cuban government is talking with us, and they’re in a big deal of trouble,” Trump said as he left the White House for a trip to Texas. “They have no money. They have no anything right now, but they’re talking with us, and maybe we’ll 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 tariffs on any country that stepped in to fill the void.

Cuba’s ambassador to Canada Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz said on Feb. 24 that the United States is “suffocating an entire people.”

“The collective punishment of a whole nation is an unjustifiable crime. One may disagree with the country’s political project, but there is no right whatsoever that justifies a great power — based on its economic and military might — interfering in its internal affairs, violating its independence,” Diaz said.

“Much less acceptable is a superpower attempting 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 surveyed Canadians believe that is enough support from Canada; with one-third (32 per cent) “want[ing] their country to do more to assist.”

There was also one-in-five (19 per cent) who believe Canada “should be doing less than that or should 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 per cent) say they are following the story in Cuba “very closely” (14 per cent) or “closely” (38 per cent). One-third (36 per cent) say they are scanning headlines.

Global Affairs Canada has warned travellers for more than a year of “shortages of basic necessities, including food, medicine and fuel,” across most of Cuba.

The island lost its main source of fuel in January when the U.S. took control of Venezuela’s oil reserves, with Washington threatening to impose tariffs on countries sending Cuba fuel.

Tensions between Canada and the U.S. have been continuing to sour with Trump’s annexation threats towards Canada and 2025 imposed tariffs.

A September 2025 Ipsos poll found that six in ten Canadians (60 per cent) say the country “can never trust the Americans the same way again.”

Seventy-one per cent also believe that the trade and economic disputes Canada is facing with the U.S. “will persist for several years and won’t be resolved soon.”

A February 2026 Politico poll also found that 58 per cent of Canadians surveyed said they “no longer view the U.S. as a reliable ally,” with 42 per cent going as far to say that America isn’t an ally at all.

Forty-three per cent also said that they see the U.S. as “mostly a threat” to global stability.

-With files from Sean Boynton