April 10, 2026 – On a top-of-mind basis, a plurality (40%) of Canadians feel that it should be illegal for Canadian citizens to serve in foreign militaries, but an equally sizeable proportion (39%) are uncertain of their opinion on this matter – suggesting that it is an issue with low salience and weakly-held views, overall.
- When considering specific foreign militaries, slim majorities feel service in the Israeli (56%) and US (52%) militaries should be illegal, whereas a plurality (45%) feels the same about Canadians serving in the Ukrainian military.
Once Canadians are exposed to the dual citizenship and legal context related to this issue, public opinion notably shifts – with a plurality (40%; +19) of the public feeling that foreign military service should be legal, whereas a third (32%; -8) feel it should be illegal. More than a quarter remain unsure of their stance.
- When considering specific foreign militaries after exposure to this information, preferences for illegality decline and the public emerges divided over Canadians serving in the US and Ukrainian militaries. The proportion who feel that service in the Israeli military should be illegal is reduced from a majority to a plurality.
When specifically considering dual citizens, just over half (51%) of the public feels that it should be legal for Canadian citizens who hold citizenship in another country to serve in that other country’s military – about half that proportion (23%) feel it should be illegal. Just over a quarter remain unsure.
- When considering specific foreign militaries, a slim majority (52%) feel it should be legal for Canadian citizens who are also citizens of Ukraine to serve in the Ukrainian military. A 49% plurality feel it should be legal for Canadian citizens who are also US citizens to serve in the US military, and a moderately smaller plurality (45%) feel the same about Canadian-Israeli dual citizens serving in the Israeli military.
These are the findings from a Pollara-sponsored poll conducted amongst a randomly selected sample of N=1,538 adult Canadians. This online survey was in field from April 8 to April 10, 2026 amongst members of the Sago online research panel. It is a follow-up study to a poll Pollara previously conducted for The Maple. The dataset was statistically weighted according to most current Census statistics for the following demographic characteristics of the Canadian population: gender identity, age, and regional distribution. A margin of error cannot be calculated on a non-probability sample. For comparison purposes, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of ±2.5%, 19 times out of 20. Sub-segments of the total sample carry higher margins of error.
For more details, please see our memorandum and the data tables.
