'Dark economic clouds gathering': Nanos on Canadians’ top concerns towards groceries and gas

Nick Nanos is here to break down his

latest numbers. He's the founder and

chief data scientist at Nanos Research.

Good morning, Nick. Good to see you.

>> Good to see you, too, Lauren.

>> So, Nick, over the last month, we've

seen prices rising, most notably at the

gas pumps. What are you seeing in terms

of how that's impacting the top concerns

of Canadian voters right now?

>> Lauren, we are seeing dark economic

clouds gathering when we look right

across the board. You know, you were

asking about the top issues of concern.

Check it out. In the last four weeks,

jobs in the economy has jumped six

percentage points as the top national

issue of concern. It's at around 23%

followed by concern about Trump in the

US at 12, inflation at 11, healthcare at

8, immigration at five, and uh peace at

around four. But you know, the big

takeaway here is that is a significant

increase. It speaks to the pressure that

Canadians are under to pay for the

groceries. and now to pay for the gas.

>> So obviously the economy is a top issue

here. What are you seeing in terms of

how Canadians are feeling about the

economy overall?

>> They're starting to feel quite dower

about the future prospects for how

strong or weak the Canadian economy

might be in the next 6 months. And our

Bloomberg Nano tracking, we ask

Canadians whether they think the economy

will get stronger or weaker in the next

6 months. You know, you can see only 18

or 19% of Canadians believe that the

economy will get stronger. That's down

eight points. But check out the number

for weaker. The proportion of Canadians

that believe the economy will get weaker

in the next 6 months is at 49%. One out

of every two Canadians. That's jumped 12

percentage points just in the last four

weeks. And you know what it shows is the

knock-on effect of what I'll say the

increasing price of gas, the war in

Iran, people worried about trade with

Donald Trump and the US and all those

things rolling up into Canadians

believing or thinking that the economy

is more likely to get weaker than

stronger in the next 6 months.

>> All right. Yeah, not a lot of confidence

there in terms of the economy. Now,

Nick, you also looked at those economic

concerns at a micro level. So, how are

Canadians feeling about their own bank

accounts? Yeah, when we pivot from the

big picture economy to personal

finances, it's actually still

significantly negative. When we ask

Canadians whether their personal

finances are better or worse off, this

would be compared to a year ago. Four

out of every 10 Canadians report that

their personal finances are worse off.

That's up five points in the last four

weeks. And you can see, Lauren, by a

factor of 2 and a half to one, people

are more likely to report that their

personal finances are worse rather than

better off. And uh just speaks to the

pressure that people are under.

>> Nick, before I let you go, I do want to

get your thoughts on a story we're

following today. Bi-elections happening

right now, specifically in Terabon,

where advanced voting has already

started. What is your read on how that

should play out?

Well, Tabon was a coin toss and I think

it's still going to be a close race this

time. The big question is will the

voters in Tabon when they're thinking

about how they're going to cast their

ballot think about [snorts] whether they

want the carne government to have a

majority or not because it could be one

of the critical writings that could

determine how strong or weak the can the

carne government could be in the coming

months. But the thing is Lauren this

also includes voter turnout. It includes

organization. It includes the local

candidates and uh you know this was won

by one vote last time and uh I I'm

thinking it'll probably be more than one

vote because that was more that was very

exceptional. But you know the thing is

is that I think at this point in time

it's too early to tell the turnout at

these advanced polls will be the first

indicator as to how engaged voters in

Terabon might be. That's one of the

things that I'm going to watch out for.

But there's still another week left

before voters cast their ballot in that

particular bi-election.

>> All right, we will certainly be watching

as well. Nick, thank you so much for

your time.

>> Take it easy. That is Nick Nanos, the

founder and chief data scientist at

Nanos Research.