The IT Nerd

Canada is facing a crisis in leadership and expert credibility. The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer shows that in Canada, amid urgent problems and in a year of crisis, leadership is failing. The survey reveals government leaders, CEOs and religious leaders are not trusted to do what is right. An astounding 50 per cent of Canadians say that business leaders are purposely trying to mislead people by saying things they know are false and 46 per cent of Canadians say government leaders are doing the same.

Further, the credibility of experts saw a major decline year-over-year as well. Company technical experts and academic experts have declined 16 points in credibility; journalists are down four points; CEOs are down five points with only 29 per cent of Canadians believing they are a credible source of information, and Boards of Directors rank least credible at just 26 per cent, hitting an all-time low.

The survey highlights the growing struggle around trusted information and credible sources. Trust in all sources – traditional media, search engines, owned or social media – has declined significantly in the last year with only traditional news sitting in the neutral category. And, while doing better than their U.S. and global counterparts, nearly half of Canadians believe that journalists are purposely trying to mislead them by saying things they know are false, and more than half believe news organizations are more concerned with supporting an ideology than with informing the public.

To make matters more challenging, the 2021 Trust Barometer found that only 1 in 5 Canadians have good information hygiene. Good information hygiene is defined as three or more of the following actions: engaging with news, avoiding information echo chambers, verifying information and not amplifying unvetted information.  There’s a clear link between willingness to vaccinate and good information hygiene. Those with good information hygiene are more willing to vaccinate within the next year than those with poor information hygiene. In Canada, the vaccination gap – the difference in willingness to vaccinate between the two groups – is 14 points.

Slightly more than 1 in 3 Canadians surveyed say they are ready to be vaccinated as soon as possible. And a total of 66 per cent are willing to be vaccinated within the year—falling below the estimated 70 per cent or more required to achieve herd immunity as communicated by the Public Health Agency of Canada. Canada sits on par with the world on this front and only 7 points ahead of the U.S. when it comes to vaccination within the next year.

In a tumultuous year, Canadians say they are most worried about job loss (75%), cyber-attacks (65%) and climate change (63%). Only 60 per cent of Canadians are worried about contracting COVID-19 and nearly half of respondents worry about losing freedoms as a citizen in a year of lockdowns and mandatory stay-at-home orders.

Half of Canadians surveyed have witnessed layoffs or reductions in the workforce of the company they work for. 49 per cent worry that the pandemic will accelerate job loss due to automation.

Of the most important issues to Canadians, respondents list improving health care, addressing poverty and combatting fake news as top concerns.

For full results, visit https://www.edelman.ca/trust-barometer/edelman-trust-barometer-2021

There is a live event taking place at 1:00 p.m. EST today. To register for that event you can click here.

About the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer 

The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer is the firm’s 21^st annual trust and credibility survey. The survey was powered by research firm Edelman DxI and consisted of a 30-minute online survey of n=1,500 Canadians nationally representative and weighted to reflect gender, age, and region distributions and was conducted between October 19 and November 18, 2020.

The Edelman Trust Barometer considers three populations: The Informed Public (aged 25-64, college-educated, in the top quarter for household income in their age group, and who engage with the news on business and public policy); the Mass Population (which accounts for everyone excluding the Informed Public); and the General Population, which refers to all those surveyed. The 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer online survey sampled more than 33,000 respondents, including 1,500 Canadians.

The 2020 Edelman Trust Barometer reveals that trust in government, business, media and NGOs is down over the previous year. At a time when more than three quarters of Canadian employees fear they will lose their job due to a variety of factors like technological change, a looming recession and jobs being moved oversees– Canadians don’t have confidence in their leaders to address the challenge.

Canadians did not one find one institution to be both competent and ethical – a combination of attributes they see as necessary to earn the trust of the public, as 62 per cent of Canadians feel the pace of change in technology is moving too fast.  Despite high employment rates, Canadians are deeply concerned about their economic future. Only 1 in 3 Canadians believe they and their families will be better off in five years’ time.

The trust gap between the informed public and the mass population dropped from a high of 20 points in 2019 to 16 points in 2020, signaling continued polarization in the system. The closing gap is attributed to a notable decrease in trust of the informed public, aged 25-64 and defined as those who are college-educated, in the top quarter for household income in their age group, and who regularly consume or engage with news. This decline is notable against the backdrop of continued uncertainty in Canada around the economy and trade with both the United States and China.

The country’s current leaders – CEOs and government – may not be the solution, as nearly two in three Canadians do not have confidence that these leaders will successfully address the country’s challenges. There is also uncertainty about where to turn to for quality information, with half of Canadians believing that the media they use is contaminated with untrustworthy information and a staggering seventy-one per cent worrying about fake news being used as a weapon.

Overall, Canadians are yearning for leadership. In two years, the percent of Canadians saying company CEOs should take the lead on change has increased from 68 per cent in 2018 to 80 per cent in 2020.

For full results visit https://www.edelman.ca/trust-barometer/trust-barometer-2020.