In our latest Spark Insights survey (Online, October 16-21, 3992 interviews nationally) we asked how people felt about a number of global figures. Here are some of the things that popped out for me, from the findings:

• Donald Trump is less popular with Canadians than Putin, Kim Jong Un, Xi Jinping, and Elon Musk. For a US President, this is unheard of. It may feel normal by now, but it really is unusual. It reflects both a perception that he lacks the judgment, skills and values to be a good leader, and a reaction to his aggressive posture towards Canada.

• Conservative voters are twice as likely as the average Canadian to like Trump, but a majority of Conservatives nonetheless dislike him. The Conservative coalition in Canada is not a mirror image of Trump’s Republican coalition. Nevertheless about a third of Poilievre’s support comes from people who like Trump, something which is a turn off to mainstream voters.

• Musk is deeply unpopular, for someone not in public office or politics. Although he makes products and services that consumers use and investors choose, his image is pretty toxic for most Canadians. He’s insulted and belittled Canada, and spoke out for political outcomes that many Canadians find objectionable: undermined Ukraine, sided with Netanyahu on Gaza, endorsed Germany’s far-right AfD, and boosted Nigel Farage and Tommy Robinson in the UK. These positions, as well as Musk’s on-again, off-again affection for Trump, may explain why Conservative voters like him better than anyone we tested, except Pierre Poilievre. I doubt it has to do with his early embrace of electric vehicles.

• Across Canada as a whole, Volodymyr Zelensky is widely respected. That’s not so much the case among Conservative voters. While we don’t have a lot of data to understand why Conservatives are lukewarm to the Ukraine leader, it isn’t because they admire Putin.

I don’t recall a time when global geopolitics seemed so disrupted from the perspective of a person living in Canada, or mattered as much to the political mood of Canadians - with the possible exception of some of the Cold War years in the 1960s, and the related sense of risk of a nuclear war.

Trump’s leadership has in some cases caused, and in others, simply enabled the breakdown in a fairly reliable world order. Along the way, he created a more unsettled and worried Canada.

Canadian politics is becoming a lot more connected to this reality.

Today, while two thirds (66%) feel “confident about the future of Canada”, and 61% say “Canada is getting better and more things are going right” while 73% say “world politics makes me fearful”.

Canadians who are most worried (i.e. strongly agree with feeling “fearful”) about world politics are roughly 10 points more likely to find Carney’s leadership appealing, and 10 points less likely to feel that way about Poilievre. These voters are quite a bit more negative towards Trump, Musk, and Putin, and a lot more positive towards Zelensky.

More often than not, Ottawa’s approach to international relations barely mattered to how people evaluated their government, or considered the opposition alternative.

That’s not the case right now.