Canadians’ trust in government has fallen, while trust in business has gone up, according to the 14th annual Edelman Trust Barometer.
The survey found 51% of Canadians say they trust government, down from 58% in 2012. Meanwhile, trust in business rose four percentage points to 62%. Globally, the survey revealed the largest gap (14 points) between business and government since the study began.
“[The results imply] business is out of the dog house and they can go do whatever they want,” said John Clinton, CEO of Edelman Canada. “I think in reality it means business is on a really short leash. But they have permission to go and lead if they do it responsibly.”
Globally, trust in CEOs has plateaued, and while they have recovered from a low of 31% in 2009 to 43% this year, they still rank seventh out of eight on the list of most credible spokespeople. In Canada, trust in CEOs remains comparatively low at 33%.
“I think this has some pretty big implications for how CEOs need to lead to be part of the debate,” said Clinton. “If you were a glass-half-empty person, you would say ‘nobody trusts a CEO, so I don’t need to [engage the media], I just need to run the company well.’ I think that’s totally untrue. You have to look at it in a way that says ‘I need to fully engage and I need to draft people to help me do this because I’m not the trusted spokesperson for the company.’”
The study reports the most trusted spokespeople in Canada are academics or experts (73%), technical experts in a company (58%) and financial or industry analyst (56%).
Boards of directors were added to the list for the first time last year, with 35% of Canadians saying they’re credible spokespeople. “Board of directors are supposed to be like the government for CEOs,” said Clinton. “They’re supposed to regulate and watch over what a CEO and a company does. I think what the Trust Barometer is telling us is that the board of directors is an extension of the CEO and [Canadians] don’t trust them either.”
The survey also found that the most trusted industries are: technology (74%), consumer electronics manufacturing (71%), brewing and spirits (71%), food and beverage (68%) and entertainment (66%). The least trusted industries are chemicals (47%), pharmaceuticals (54%) and media (55%).
When it comes to the most trusted source of general news and information, traditional media still reigns in Canada, with 70% of Canadians trusting sources such as television, magazines and newspapers. This is followed by online search engines (62%) hybrid media (55%), owned media 36% and social media (32%).
The survey was produced by research firm Edelman Berland and consisted of 20-minute online interviews conducted last October/November. The 2014 Edelman Trust Barometer online survey sampled 27,000 general population respondents with an oversample of 6,000 informed publics – including 200 in Canada – ages 25-64 across 27 countries.
