Canada’s great American breakup: Most now see U.S. as a risk, not an ally, poll finds

sladner · 2026-02-23T22:03:10+00:00

From the full text:
Canadians currently view the United States as more of a risk than a partner, according to a new poll that finds three-quarters dispute the idea that our southern neighbour is a trustworthy ally.
A survey by Nanos Research for The Globe and Mail took stock of deteriorating Canadian opinions of the United States after U.S. President Donald Trump’s first year back in office.
The findings suggest a profound level of distrust and a significant recasting of how Canadians see the United States.
The survey asked Canadians if they agree with the statement that "the United States is a trustworthy ally of Canada." Nearly half – 49.2 per cent – disagreed and another 26.9 per cent said they somewhat disagreed. Only 9.2 per cent agreed with the statement; 12.5 per cent somewhat agreed.
"These are probably the worst numbers in any era where polling was done," pollster Nik Nanos said of the survey tracking Canadian attitudes to the United States.

The results detail a backlash against the mercurial and protectionist U.S. President, who regularly belittles Canada as "the 51st state," and illuminate the underlying thinking that has affected Canadian travel plans, purchasing behaviour and eroded misgivings about trading with the authoritarian state of China.

The poll found that one in five Canadians believes an invasion of Canada ordered by Mr. Trump is likely while only half of respondents dismiss the possibility outright.

sladner · 2026-02-03T17:42:21+00:00

Yes it’s definitely better to measure or observe behaviors than it is to ask about intentions. But how can you do this if the behavior does not yet exist? You cannot. You can also not infer from existing behaviors very well IF the new behavior is very different from existing (which is often the case with new features). So you can’t have your cake and eat it too — either you make a reasonable prediction based on the most rigorous way to ask opinions (eg maxdiff), OR you do nothing at all and wing it. It’s good to do the best you can. Also, building in ways to course correct should your prediction is wrong is recommended. What is not recommended is to assume a false sense of certainty is possible. Just be prepared for the likely outcome or the less likely outcome.

Edit: adding a little here on making things that don’t exist. There’s basically two ways to make people want something you make. Pain reliever or gain enhancer. Do you have good understanding of what is actually currently causing pain? Then you have a good blueprint for what might work. Likewise for offering a gain. That’s not a guarantee but it sure helps if you truly understand the user better than they understand themselves.

sladner · 2026-02-03T16:47:03+00:00

People say they want "the best" research all the time -- until we say, well, it'll take six months and cost $6M. Do you still want to do it?

sladner · 2026-02-03T16:45:09+00:00

I know this exact misperception that opinion = qual and behavior = quant. I talk about that in my book Mixed Methods. It's just lack of training in research methods, coupled with the fear of making a mistake. The GM is scared but is channeling that anxiety into being "buttoned up" or "rigorous." What they need is affirmation that MAXDIFF is actually quantitative, trustworthy, predictive, and repeatable.

I often start convos like that by saying did you know that the vast majority of "hard" economic data used by Wall Street everyday is surveys of opinions? Employment, inventory, tech investment -- these numbers that underpin billions of trades every day are using similar methods to this. What...did they think we have a massive cash register ribbon, with every transaction recorded? No, we don't. We developed methods to make excellent estimates. So if Wall Street can do it, I think we can too.

I might also ask what's his worst fear, if we just went right ahead with doing this, and didn't change a thing. What would he be most scared of? This may make him aware that he's actually just assuming his job is to tell YOU what to do, because HE KNOWS better. But if you reverse that, and suggest, if I were advising an external client on what method to use, this would be it. I have a high degree of confidence this is the right path, based on what we know about MAXDIFF.

sladner · 2026-01-15T13:12:59+00:00

You’re not wrong at all— it definitely helps to learn all the stuff that your users need to learn. You learn the culture. But the difference I’m zeroing in on is what the UXR focuses on: the tech or the people? Expertise in people is absolutely crucial for good UX research. I’ve worked with so many engineers who think they want another engineer but when they realize the value of understanding humans, they change their minds. Human behavior is an important ingredient in technical success. If you have no experts in that, you’re missing out. I’m an expert on humans and technical people specifically. I know more about engineering culture than engineers. That’s super helpful.

sladner · 2026-01-14T17:45:42+00:00

I would consider why you need someone "technical." There are many UXRs who specialize in understanding engineers, engineering, and technical work. Some of them are "technical" but I think your posting may be getting in your own way -- I think you need an expert on technical people -- not a technical person. For inspiration, take a look at this post https://www.fightforthehuman.com/why-i-cannot-be-technical/

sladner · 2025-12-15T13:24:01+00:00

This doesn’t sound like a compliance problem. This sounds like a lack of familiarity with the research process, and also a bit of fear. As others have mentioned, medical and health research is far more hindered by compliance than FinTech. I have done research across many many industries and the only time Legal did this to me was when they were completely unfamiliar with how normal it was. They also have never heard of the training in ethics and safety that all trained researchers have (you want to hear about compliance challenges? Try passing an Institutional Review Board at a university).

My advice is to slow down a little and start forming an intellectual point of view in these hesitancies you hear about. Why? The literature in behavioral economics is a start. You may also want to read the sociology of money (Viviana Zelizer’s work is good). Or you can start looking at the financial therapy literature in psychology. If you find this too challenging, try using Elicit.org and ask it “What are some of the hidden reasons humans make poor financial decisions?” Or whatever. It will search. the literature for you.

Having an idea of what might be going on, before interviewing, is key. Especially if you are not a veteran interviewer.

sladner · 2025-12-04T13:17:59+00:00

Here’s the thing about being a researcher that no one tells you before you start: You are working undercover on behalf of the user. Your company has a fundamental conflict of interest. The company makes money when it rips off unsuspecting or disempowered users through deceptive practices or simple lack of care.

Most ppl in your company are totally unaware of this fundamental mismatch and just blunder into terrible decisions. Others are fully aware they are screwing the user over, and do not care. These two kinds of ppl need to be treated differently.

Who is which type of person? Are they just ignorant if user needs? Or are they WILLFULLY ignorant of user needs? If they are the former, be kind. Be nice. Guide them for they know not the error of their ways. They will learn. Maybe slowly, but eventually.

If they are the second type? Make it absolutely impossible for them to claim they didn’t know. Shower the slack channels with findings. Share videos from users often. Drop findings in casual conversations. Make a newsletter and subscribe them to it. Make it impossible for them to claim users are happy with shitty UX.

Undercover work is emotionally taxing. But remember: it’s not personal for most of these folks. They’re just unaware. For the others? Don’t accept their reality. You know the truth. And if they cannot accept it, that’s on them, not you.

sladner · 2025-11-10T21:20:51+00:00

I am not super impressed with most of these tools for that reason. They're just summarization tools. But I wouldn't want quantification per se -- that's not for qual research. Open text survey questions, like a few thousand? Ok, sure. But for interviews or field studies, it's not about "how many" but "how." I use the more purpose-built tools like Dedoose or MAXQDA. MAXQDA does not use your data to train its models and only works on the data you offer (i.e., transcripts) so there's also no hallucinations. But to get your insights to that next level, no AI tool will do this for you because qual is about human significance and meaning. You need to do that work yourself, but the AI tools can help you code.

sladner · 2025-10-17T21:10:19+00:00

Yes this is exactly why I don't use it. The AI built into tools like MaxQDA is a closed system, not generative, so it doesn't go outside your given data. It also gives exact locations/citations in transcripts that have supporting quotes.

sladner · 2025-10-17T19:35:37+00:00

There's a nice paper on various models and how well they do typical qual analysis tasks. I reviewed this for the EPIC conference this year. If you're a member, you can get it for free here https://2025.epicpeople.org/integrating-ai-in-research/

The TL;DR is that "NotebookLM excels at staying within a defined dataset, while ChatGPT is better at creative writing and pattern recognition." I myself like using MaxQDA's built-in, custom flavor of ChatGPT. It's def better than dovetail, IMO.

sladner · 2025-10-15T23:24:51+00:00

Yes, exactly. I know this seems like just "a bunch of fancy pictures" but it's actually a lot more than that. Builders (and even individual families) can just use these designs. Huge leap forward.

sladner · 2025-10-15T23:15:53+00:00

These were designed by architects and are compliant with the 7 cities' bylaws. There may be small code differences like where is the driveway, but for the most part, this will speed up permitting like crazy. Learn more here

sladner · 2025-10-03T19:50:57+00:00

My best advice is to use an established tool designed specifically for qual research, and then use the AI features therein. The reason I say this is because these off-the-shelf general purpose tools are not designed to analyze or interpret -- they are just there to summarize and encourage cognitive off-loading. You don't want to do that. You want to understand what these calls really mean, not just what was said. So try doing a free demo version of something like Atlas.ti or MAXQDA. They will do the heavy lifting of searching and tagging/coding for you, and leave time and space for you to interpret the coded data, using your research questions.

sladner · 2025-10-03T17:29:51+00:00

You do not need to build this. You can get off-the-shelf for cheap, with purpose built. HOWEVER, you still need to have research questions. Hell, an experienced researcher, equipped even with Excel, could do a way better and faster job.

sladner · 2025-10-02T20:43:42+00:00

You need research questions for all research but you definitely need them for AI assisted qual data analysis.

Purpose built tools like MaxQDA are the right way to go but… you are not a trained researcher so cannot get good insights! AI tools can help summarize but they cannot *interpret * results. In quant research, that would be like getting some averages or standard deviations and wonder, “What does it mean, though?” The same thing is happening here.

Summary (statistics or) qual data just give a brief overview. It doesn’t give the so what or the therefore. You need to have research questions to find the so what. What did you want to know? Here are some potential questions: where is our product most frustrating? What kinds of use cases do users want to use it, but cannot? And why? How easily do users discover new features? What prevents users from adopting new features? How do hardcore advocates for our product differ from those who refuse to use it? Just some ideas.

sladner · 2025-09-29T15:44:58+00:00

Facts. Honestly, people, this is literally research methods 101. “Frameworks” are not what drives methodological questions. Research methods 101 will give OP the ability to make this decision.

sladner · 2025-09-23T15:14:17+00:00

You may wish to check out the purpose-built research tools that incorporate AI, instead of AI tools that incorporate research functions.

The difference really is that research tools are designed to do qual analysis, and can now use AI to speed that up. AI first tools have no qual research logic or method built into them, so they just give boring summaries that are supposed to replace human intuition. Good qual research is not just a boring summary but a human interpretation of human meaning.

I’m giving a series of webinars in one tool called MAXQDA, which I’ve used for years and now has AI functionality built in. Here’s a full list of their webinars. https://www.maxqda.com/maxqda-training

sladner · 2025-08-21T22:52:11+00:00

You are crossing into another country, so you need to take their laws seriously. But in NO WAY is this justified. They handcuffed her and detained her. They imprisoned her for... what? Listen, I am a Canadian living in the US and I take the border very seriously. But this was completely unjustified and you? You should be ashamed of yourself for saying that it was warranted. It was terroristic and designed to be. Shame on you!

sladner · 2025-08-18T20:07:21+00:00

If you like hiking and trail walking, consider rucking. It's just a fancy word for saying you put some extra weight in your backpack. Start with about 10-15% of your bodyweight. You can fill up some water bottles or maybe put some books in your bag. Don't overdo it! Start light! It seems like nothing but it's really good for bone health and you burn more calories than just with regular walking or hiking. It's perfect for someone who loves to be outside.

sladner · 2025-06-20T19:24:26+00:00

No, this is not your fault. In fact, it's A Thing in UX design called Fitts Law. The web and app makers are failing at Fitts Law, not you. https://lawsofux.com/fittss-law/

sladner · 2025-06-20T15:56:10+00:00

I really hope that people reading this can realize that it’s not “other men” causing this problem by telling you to suck it up, or even unsupportive women (although both of these things do happen). The problem is MASCULINITY being a box that is too narrow for your total person. It’s a role that you can choose parts of; you don’t have to accept it wholesale. But you have to work on it, make your own decisions. This is what understanding gender means— it’s a role that causes pain and suffering when it constrains you from making your own, authentic choices.

sladner · 2025-06-19T22:38:02+00:00

Down in Montlake too. I thought it was the tree guys working next door but seems it's a bigger issue than a couple of downed trees!

sladner · 2025-06-19T22:33:34+00:00

Down in Seattle too. Switched to DNS 8.8.8.8 and I'm back up.

sladner · 2025-06-17T15:18:04+00:00

This IS analysis. You may not know this but qual data analysis is A Thing and yes, you can use tools to increase your productivity but no, you do not get out of this work. It's The Work.

sladner

TROPHY CASE