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For years, “The Great One” — the nickname given to him as he’s considered the greatest hockey player of all time — was beloved in the eyes of many Canadians.

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Gretzky is nearly 40 per cent less favourable to Canadians, according to , a Canadian research firm. In 2010, when 82 per cent of those surveyed had an opinion of him, 73 per cent favoured Gretzky. In 2025? Just 35 per cent are in favour.

The results emerge as Gretzky has spoken publicly for the first time about politics and the controversy surrounding his relationship with U.S. President Donald Trump.

The negative views, according to Pollara chief strategy officer Dan Arnold, seem to be driven by his connection to Trump, who encouraged ”The Great One” to become Canada’s prime minister amid the U.S. president’s calls for the country to give up its sovereignty and become the 51st U.S. state. 

Gretzky’s Trump ties

Gretzky, a longtime friend of the president, attended Trump’s election party in November, wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat.

“We’re in a space right now where anything that Trump touches becomes toxic from a public opinion perspective,” Arnold said. 

“It’s safe to say he’s no longer ‘The Great One’ in the eyes of Canadians. He’s the one for whom we have very mixed emotions. ... That’s a pretty big swing from where things were 15 years ago, when it was very universal in terms of how Canadians felt about him.”

Gretzky’s statue outside Rogers Place in Edmonton — home of the Oilers — was vandalized with what appeared to be feces last month. A poster outside of a º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøwine shop  last month. And, at the 4 Nations Face-Off final in February, he faced criticism for not wearing a Canadian jersey despite being Canada’s honorary captain. 

A partisan divide among Liberals and Conservatives 

There’s also a partisan divide in the poll among Liberal and Conservative voters about their opinions on Gretzky, which Arnold says is evidence of Gretzky’s connection to Trump playing a role in the mixed emotions. 

Of the Liberal voters surveyed, 49 per cent had a negative view of Gretzky and 23 per cent were positive. In comparison, surveyed Conservative voters were 53 per cent positive on Gretzky and 19 per cent had an unfavourable opinion.

“When you see a dramatic partisan skew, it’s not because Conservatives are big hockey fans. It’s because they have different views about Trump compared to Liberal voters,” Arnold said. “So it really does seem to be something that’s driven by this political cloud that hangs over everything right now in North America, which is Trump.”

hosted by Ben Mulroney on Monday, downplaying his political influence on Trump. 

“I don’t worry about those kind of things because you can’t make everybody happy,” Gretzky said. “But, trust me, I have no political power with the prime minister or the president. That’s between those two guys, and that’s why you hold elections, and that’s why people get to do what they want to do and say what they want to say. But, trust me, I have no pull or power with either the prime minister or the president.” 

The overall share of opinions on Gretzky were expected to lower since 2010, even without his ties to Trump. Compared to 2010, people who are in their 20s either never saw Gretzky play or don’t remember, Arnold said, which may have led to fewer strong opinions about “The Great One.”

However, Arnold didn’t expect the negative opinions to rise.

“You might expect his positives to go down, as people are less familiar with what he did on the ice,” he said. “But the fact that his negative has gone up, you have to assume something else is driving that right now.”

How other players are viewed

Active NHL players Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby are more positively viewed by Canadians, according to the poll. Crosby has 58 per cent favourable and seven per cent unfavourable opinions, while McDavid has 42 per cent favourable and eight per cent unfavourable opinions.

Both have been successful for Canada internationally — their recent 4 Nations Face-Off win was ranked the greatest Canadian international hockey victory in the poll — which Arnold says leads to no reasons to truly dislike them, unless individuals are fans of rival NHL teams. 

The poll was conducted between March 24 and April 1 through an online survey of 2,001 Canadians over the age of 18. The poll has a margin of error of 2.5 per cent and was weighted to be representative of the Canadian adult population. The question on impressions of the NHL and hockey figures was tracked against a 2010 Pollara survey fielded online among 1,009 adult Canadians.

Gretzky, who wasn't asked about Trump's tariffs, trade war or the 51st state comments and didn't use Trump's name on Mulroney's radio show, said he and his teammates never got political when he was a player. 

“We watched basketball, we watched baseball, we talked about the Blue Jays, we talked about the New York Yankees,” Gretzky said. “Hockey players, that’s never on the docket. It’s just something that we stay in our lane. The prime minister and the president don’t tell us how to play hockey, and we don’t tell them how to do politics, right?”

Despite the ongoing mixed emotions about Gretzky, Arnold says that might not be the case forever.

“If you ask people today how they feel about Gordie Howe or these people who played a long time ago, they probably don’t know a lot about their personalities,” he said. “They’re just legends because of what they accomplished. So, the long-term legacy may still very much be in terms of what he did on the ice, and that could be how he’s remembered in the long run.”