The Montreal Canadiens are the most popular team in Canada and the Toronto Maple Leafs are the most despised, according to a new nationwide *Insights West poll.

In the online survey, 40 per cent of those polled consider themselves big or casual fans of the Montreal Canadiens — by far the highest proportion in the country.

Trailing the Habs in popularity are the Toronto Maple Leafs (26 per cent), the Ottawa Senators (24 per cent), the Calgary Flames (23 per cent), the Vancouver Canucks (also 23 per cent), the Winnipeg Jets (21 per cent) and the Edmonton Oilers (17 per cent).

"The Canadiens and the Canucks are extremely popular in their home provinces, partly because there is no intra-provincial rivalry like the ones we see in Alberta and Ontario," says Mario Canseco, Vice President, Public Affairs, at Insights West.

A total of 71 per cent of the respondents in Quebec are fans of the Canadiens, while 70 per cent of those polled in B.C. supported the Canucks.

"But the Habs have a fan base that expands outside of Quebec, with two-in-five Atlantic Canadians and three-in-ten Ontarians and British Columbians expressing allegiance to the team," Canseco explained.

The Leafs may be Canada's second most-popular team but they are also the most hated team in the country.

A whopping 19 per cent of those polled, including 24 per cent in B.C. and 24 per cent among Canadians aged 18 to 34, named the Leafs as the team they most love to hate. The Habs were a distant second on the hate list at 12 per cent.

"The hatred in in intra-provincial rivalries is definitely more pronounced in Alberta than in Ontario," said Canseco. "We see that 18 per cent of Albertans hate the Oilers and 11 per cent of Albertans dislike the Flames, but in Ontario, only 6 per cent claim to hate the Senators, while 21 per cent say they despise the Maple Leafs."

When it comes to the five playoff teams, 33 per cent of Canadians say they will be rooting for Montreal. The Senators and Canucks are tied for second place with 14 per cent followed by the Jets at 10 per cent and the Flames at nine per cent.

* Results are based on an online study conducted from April 14 to April 15, 2015, among 1,008 adult Canadians. The data has been statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region. While statistical margins of error are arguably not applicable to online panels/online studies of this nature, we have assumed that the same margins of error apply as if it were a true unweighted random probability sample with a margin of error of +/- 3.1 percentage points for Canada, 19 times out of 20.