Many Canadians who voted in 2025 didn’t feel fully informed: poll

Many respondents pointed to social media as among their most influential news sources, with 14 per cent specifically citing Facebook.

A new survey suggests more than half of Canadians believe they didn’t have enough information or needed more to cast their ballot in the last federal election.

The Ipsos poll says 57 per cent of respondents either believed they didn’t have enough local news or could have used more to assess candidates back in April.

Many respondents pointed to social media as among their most influential news sources, with 14 per cent specifically citing Facebook even though the social media site banned news content in Canada.

The online survey of 1,000 Canadian residents was conducted July 11 to 21 and is part of a study by the Public Policy Forum on access to local news.

The think tank concludes that a steady erosion of local news outlets leaves many Canadians “wading through the toxic waters of social media.”

Report authors include former Toronto Star columnist Tim Harper and former Maclean’s editor-in-chief Alison Uncles, who suggest a permanent non-partisan election fund could help media outlets better cover political races.

“There was scant coverage at the local level, with candidates using their own social media channels rather than have their information filtered through local reporters,” says the report, also co-authored by Sara-Christine Gemson, executive director of the Public Policy Forum Academy and a past Radio-Canada journalist.

“It is no hyperbole to argue that given the collapse of local news and the Facebook ban on news on its site, the federal election of 2025 was most likely the most poorly covered election in modern Canadian history.”