Insights in new Global Research - Canada/UK public trust levels see further declines in Edelman study

Last week’s 22nd annual Edelman Trust Barometer was another sobering reminder that public trust in institutions has become perilously low in countries around the world. And, while Canadians appear to be more trusting than Brits, both nations have seen declines across all four major institutions – media, government, NGOs and business.  

Government was the most trusted institution in both countries as recently as May 2020, when citizens were desperate for leadership capable of tackling a global pandemic. Now, with strong criticism of their response, both Canadian and British governments have seen their trust scores fall for two years in a row and, in each case, they now trail business. This may be partly because optimism in their respective economies appears to be failing, with only just over a third of both Brits and Canadians feeling confident their families will be better off in five years.

The Trust Barometer showed a continued turning away from traditional news sources because of the perception of bias and fake news, with the resulting trust in media plummeting to just 35% in the UK and dropping to just over 50% in Canada. It is telling that the most trusted relationship respondents have is with Their Employer, with both Canada and UK respondents sitting right at the global average of more than 75%. So it wasn’t surprising, then, that "Communications from My Employer" was the most believable (65 percent) information source, eight points higher than mainstream media, with media 30 points behind businesses and 21 points behind NGOs on competence.

Given the gap in public trust between government and business, it wasn’t entirely surprising that both Canada and UK respondents want business to play an even bigger role on issues such as climate change, economic inequality, workforce reskilling and racial injustice.

Perhaps the most worrying theme in this year’s survey was that the biggest trust declines were across nations generally considered as democratic. In those countries, Canada and the UK obviously included, around two-thirds of respondents believe traditional authority figures—journalists, government leaders and business executives—flat-out lie. The ominous result: in many democracies, institutions are trusted by less than 50 percent of their people, including the UK at only 45%. The biggest losers were Germany (-7 points from a year prior), Australia (-6 points) and the U.S. (-5 points overall; -14 points for Republicans).

Better news for both Canada and the UK was that, while their citizens are increasingly distrusting of their own institutions, they both remain among the most trusted country brands as perceived by citizens of other countries.

Canada and the UK remain most trusted country brands globally