An annual poll measuring Canadians’ trust suggests that their level of esteem for governments has rebounded as the COVID-19 pandemic begins to wane.
The 2023 CanTrust Index released by Proof Strategies polled 1,502 adults online between Jan. 5 and Jan. 13, but cannot be assigned a margin of error, as internet polls are not considered random samples.
Last year’s survey showed that after two years of pandemic anxiety, lockdowns and health measures, trust in governments had fallen to new lows with just 22% of respondents saying they trust governments.
This year, that rate has risen to 37%, the highest for this survey since 2018.
“I think we’re kind of going back to a more normal Canada,” said Proof president and CEO Bruce MacLellan.
“And these days it’s not common to find confidence increases in a confidence survey, so that’s definitely a good sign. »
What struck Mr. MacLellan in the results is that Canadians do not have a very high regard for political parties.
When asked if they consider political parties a “unifying force” or a “dividing force” in Canadian society, 56% of respondents said they were divisive.
NDP supporters were the most likely to say the parties are divisive, at 65%, compared to 62% of Conservative voters. Liberals were the least worried about it, with 52% citing political parties as divisive.
Some organizations that had bad press in 2022 took a hit in the trust factor. Television station CTV, whose high-profile firing of longtime national anchor Lisa LaFlamme sparked a strong public reaction, has seen its confidence fall from 50% to 43% in 2023.
Confidence in Hockey Canada, which saw its entire board resign amid investigations into their handling of allegations of sexual misconduct against players, was at 30%. In 2022, the survey did not assess the level of trust in Hockey Canada.
Rogers, the telecommunications giant that experienced a massive outage that left millions of Canadians without internet or phone service for 7 p.m. in July, saw confidence in it drop slightly, from 32% to 29%.
Mr MacLellan said there were concerns that confidence was low among young people. While overall 47% of Canadians surveyed said they felt most people could be trusted, that percentage dropped to 39% among Gen Z, or those under 26, while it rises to 52% among baby boomers and 76% among people over 75.
Confidence often gets stronger as you get older and have more life experience, says McLellan. The poll, however, suggests that young people feel much less positive about how Canada is doing and how they are faring in the economy, and whether the government is working for them.
“So if you have a group in your population that feels that the economy and the electoral system aren’t working for you, that’s a problem,” he argued.
Mr McLellan also said politicians and civil servants were on the hot seat in terms of trust, after several stories revealed the machinery of government was struggling to deliver basic services, such as passport renewals.
While 64% of respondents believed government plays an important role in making Canada a better place for its citizens, only 27% said politicians “do their best” to deliver government services “efficiently and on time.”
This proportion is 40% for civil servants, and 48% of respondents felt that civil servants could do a better job.