Trust, they say, is the coin of the realm. But, according to the CanTrust Index, trust in Canada has taken a beating. Susan Delacourt writes:
For the first three years that this index was conducted, [Justin] Trudeau’s trust numbers hovered around 46 per cent. But that dropped to 40 per cent this year, accompanied by similar plunges for the news media and large corporations. In 2018, a reasonably healthy 51 per cent of people expressed trust in the media, while 28 per cent said they trusted big business. In 2019, it’s just 40 per cent for the media and 20 per cent for large corporations.
If these results are correct, we’ve become a very skeptical nation — not even sure whether we should trust each other. Only two out of every five Canadians agreed with the statement that “most people can be trusted” and three out of five endorsed the idea that “you cannot be too careful in dealing with people.”
Alberta looks to be ground zero for crumbling trust, and Edmonton in particular, where only one in five respondents from that city said people could be trusted. “Only 22 per cent of Albertans trust governments, compared to 36 per cent of Canadians overall and 39 per cent of Ontarians,” Proof reported in the release accompanying the study.
Trust is now a partisan matter, too. Only 21 per cent of Conservatives said that overall, people could be trusted, compared to 50 per cent among Liberals. Only 21 per cent of Conservatives said they trusted governments, compared to 63 per cent of Liberals.
Oh, and how are Canadians feeling about the immigration and refugee system? Forget those heady days of late 2015, when a newly elected Trudeau government opened its arms to Syrian refugees and proclaimed Canada a haven for newcomers. Only 43 per cent of respondents to this online poll agreed that the immigration system was fair and a scant 36 per cent said the refugee system balanced “the plight of refugees with the needs of the country.”
The same disease that has infected Europe and the United States has arrived on our shores. That's not good news. The problems we face require collective action. And when you can't trust your neighbours, you stay inside your own cramped house.
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