Calgary Cost of Living: Ottawa's global wins fall short at home

[CALGARY, AB] — One year after Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberals pulled off what the Angus Reid Institute called "a stunning reversal of electoral fortunes," Canadians have rendered a split verdict: competent on the world stage, failing at the kitchen table.

The Scorecard Nobody Framed

A new poll from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute, released April 27, 2026, finds 64% of Canadians say Carney met or exceeded expectations on Canada's international reputation. Another 57% credit him on trade diversification, and 56% on managing the relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.

Then comes the cold water. Seventy percent of Canadians say the government fell short on addressing the high cost of living. Sixty-seven percent say the same on housing affordability. Those are not close calls — those are failing grades on the two things that determine whether a city like Calgary feels livable or merely survivable.

Wrong Track, Right Track, No Clear Winner

More Canadians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction (42%) than the right one (34%). The remaining quarter are, apparently, still deciding.

The split is sharp along political lines. Three-quarters of past Conservative Party of Canada voters say the country is on the wrong track. Two-thirds of past Liberal voters disagree. Canadians are also evenly divided — 41% each — on whether the government has met its own election promises. That is not a mandate. That is a coin flip.

The Next Twelve Months: Wallets Over Washington

When Angus Reid asked Canadians what the Carney government's biggest challenge will be over the next year, 52% said reducing the cost of living. Managing the Trump relationship came second at 31%.

That ordering matters. The campaign that brought Carney to power leaned heavily on his credibility as a steady hand against American economic pressure. Canadians are now signalling that the diplomatic wins, real as they are, do not pay rent.

What This Means for Calgary Specifically

Calgary sits at the intersection of both pressures. The city has absorbed significant interprovincial migration over the past several years, tightening a housing market that was once considered a relative bargain. Cost-of-living relief from Ottawa — whether through tax policy, housing incentives, or direct transfers — has been slow to materialize in ways residents actually feel.

The Counterpoint Worth Hearing

To be fair to the government, twelve months is a short runway for structural problems that compounded over a decade. Housing supply, zoning reform, and inflation are not problems any single government created overnight, and they will not be solved in one fiscal year. The 56% who credit Carney on the Trump file would argue that protecting Canadian trade relationships is itself a cost-of-living issue — one that could have been far worse.

That argument holds, until you try to buy groceries.

The Angus Reid Institute poll was released on April 27, 2026, exactly one year after the federal election. The full findings are available at angusreid.org.

The question Carney now faces is whether a government that won on sovereignty can hold power on affordability — two very different promises, made to the same increasingly impatient electorate.