As the hectic year wraps up, Canadians are reflecting on the year’s big news stories with anger rather than positivity.
The biggest and most rage-inducing news stories featured U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, including his election victory and his recent tariff threats.
In an annual poll conducted by Pollara titled the “Rage Index,” 63% of Canadians said that they had negative feelings toward the news of 2024, compared to only 5% of Canadians who are feeling positive. This is a noticeable bump from the 58% of Canadians who said they were angry with the news of the year in 2022.
The overall rage index shows that 55% of Canadians indicated that they are feeling rageful, compared to the 50% of Canadians who agreed with this sentiment in 2022.
The number one news story that Canadians paid attention to was the presidential election that occurred south of the border in which the Republicans’ Trump beat Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris in a landslide victory, winning nearly all of the swing states up for grabs.
Overall, 86% of Canadians paid some level of attention to the election, with 50% of Canadians moderately following the American election and 36% actively searching for news on the election. Only 12% of Canadians heard about the election in passing.
The second most followed story was Trump’s recent threat to impose a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods entering the United States. 77% of Canadians paid some level of attention to the tariff story, with 55% paying moderate attention to the story while 22% actively searching for news on the tariffs.
While the total eclipse that covered parts of Canada and the war in Ukraine were the third and fourth most popular stories, the assassination attempt on Trump was the fifth most followed story of the year, with 70% of Canadians paying attention to the assassination attempt.
Trump being convicted of 34 felonies also received plenty of attention, as 64% of Canadians indicated they followed the story.
The two stories that made Canadians the angriest involved Trump, with 31% of Canadians indicating Trump’s victory made them the angriest, while 15% of Canadians indicated that Trump’s 25% tariff threat made them the angriest. Only 8% of Canadians said that Trump winning the election was the story that made them the happiest.
In a startling result, 3% of Canadians indicated that the assassination attempt on Trump made them the angriest while 5% said the assassination attempt made them the happiest.
The most popular Canadian-centric stories included the total eclipse this summer at number three, the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts at number seven, the Trudeau government’s capital gains tax hike at number ten, and Summer McIntosh winning three gold Olympic gold medals at number eleven.
Unlike the rest of Canada, the most searched -for story in Alberta was stories about the forest fires in Jasper, engulfing significant portions of the popular destination in flames.
Other popular stories included the Edmonton Oilers making the Stanley Cup Finals, Kate Middleton’s battle with cancer, King Charles’ battle with cancer, the Liberals’ loss in Toronto––St. Paul’s, and the rap feud between Canada’s Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
English