As in the United States, Canada was divided over the 1960 U.S. presidential election, but the general view is that Canadians were more favourable to Richard Nixon.

While the government of John Diefenbaker took no official view, as is standard practice, they were considered to be hoping for a Republican victory. On the day before the election The Globe and Mail ran the headline, "Official Ottawa Likes Nixon." Cross border relations had been very good with the Eisenhower government, under both the Liberals and Tories. Important agreements had been signed, such as that over the St. Lawrence Seaway.

Most important was the close relationship on continental security the formation of NORAD, the purchase of the BOMARC missile defence system and an agreement to trade Canadian built transport planes for fighter aircraft were all recently made agreements. The government of Canada would have preferred to continue to the successful working relationship with the members of the Eisenhower administration than risk a possible new approach by the Kennedy team. In policy, however, Kennedy and Nixon differed little on continental defence.

Personally many Canadians were attracted to the youth and charisma and John F. Kennedy. On Kennedy's first official trip to Canada in May 1961 an unprecedented crowd of 50,000 turned out to see him. However, the issue of Kennedy's Catholicism, was an important one to a significant number of Canadians. English Canada in 1960 was still dominated by a staunchly Protestant elite, most obvious in the power the Orange Orders held in society. A considerable number of English-Canadians were thus opposed to the very idea of a Catholic president, despite Canada having had a number of Catholic Prime Ministers.

There were few issues directly relating to Canadian-American relations in the 1960 election. One of the proposals that most concerned Canadians was Kennedy's plan to greatly increase agricultural subsidies. Canada could not hope to match these subsidies and they would serve to put Canadian farmers at a competitive imbalance in world markets. Canadian farmers were thus quite worried about a Kennedy victory.

Canada was only mentioned once in passing duing the presidential debates. Kennedy listed the country, along with Western Europe and Japan, as nations that needed to join the embargo against Cuba in order for it to be effective.

Some Canadian concerns about a Kennedy victory did come about. American agricultural subsidies, that have been increased even further since then, are a continued irritant. The Diefenbaker government's concerns did come to pass and relations between them and the Kennedy’s administration were abysmal. Most historians tend to blame this on Diefenbaker, however. In 1962 he infuriated Kennedy when he refused to put Canadian forces on alert during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Diefenbaker worried Kennedy was grandstanding and could involve the world in a nuclear war. He was the only major U.S. ally to express these views, however. Later that year he refused to accept nuclear warheads for the missiles based in Canada, rendering them all but useless. The Kennedy administration could barely contain its delight in Diefenbaker's replacement by Lester B. Pearson in 1963.

Despite these problems Canadians today widely venerate Kennedy. The anti-Catholic prejudices have largely disappeared, in the years since 1960 Canada has also pursued a path more to the left of the United States, and thus more in line with the views of the Democrats than the Republicans. Later events, such as Kennedy's assassination in 1963, have enhanced his image while Watergate and the Vietnam War contribute to Nixon's continued unpopularity north of the border.