GOVERNMENT TRUST FELL SIGNIFICANTLY POST-2021 FEDERAL ELECTION

Date: May 29, 2023

Responsiveness and Openness by Government Key to Restoring Trust – IOG Study

For Immediate Release:

Ottawa, ON –

According to a new AI study of social media engagements on Twitter by the Institute on Governance, trust in government fell significantly after the 2021 federal election, reaching its lowest point during the Canada Trucker Convoy in February 2022. From a high trust score of 64 per cent (of Canadians who trust their government) in August 2021, trust levels dropped to 50 per cent during the Trucker Convoy Occupation in Ottawa, six months later. Overall, trust in government received an average score of 59 per cent during the two-year period examined.

“This research project has shown the complex but real relationship between trust and social media”, stated David McLaughlin, President and CEO of the IOG. “Social media is both a trust transmitter and, more importantly, a trust amplifier. Understanding how Canadians engage on social media, their sources of information, and how they characterize both an issue and that information, is crucial for governments to act in a trustworthy manner.”

The IOG study examined citizen trust through the lens of social media, using a unique Artificial Intelligence (AI) model provided by Advanced Symbolics Inc, which tracked and interpreted Twitter data from December 2020 to December 2022. The purpose of the study was to measure trust in several ways – over time, by ‘component’ of trust, across different policy areas, and along ideological lines.

Report highlights:

Trust varied significantly across the ideological spectrum. Generally, those on the far left and far right were each less trusting of government than the centre-left, centre, and centre-right. The reasons behind this distrust were different for each of those two cohorts.
The five per cent of the cohort on the farthest right of the ideological spectrum consistently reported the lowest levels of trust in government. This cohort typically rejected the very premise of an issue or policy and were more extreme and negative in their views of the federal government in particular.
Individuals at either end of the ideological spectrum were consistently more engaged on social media, yet their trust levels remained consistently low. This suggests an ‘echo chamber’ effect of social media engagement.
Individuals shared a common level of trust but the reasons behind that sentiment were different. For instance, trust in the justice system was negative across the entire ideological spectrum – but those on the left were preoccupied with how those who interact with the justice system are treated while those on the right were concerned with use and invocation of the Emergencies Act.

Using the five indicators of trust set out by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), the study found that responsiveness and openness were, by far, of the greatest importance to Canadians. Responsiveness refers to the extent to which government policies and services meet citizen needs, demands, and expectations while openness refers to the accessibility of information. Collectively, they represent 90% of the share of social media engagements. This suggests a clear opening as to where governments can engage to foster greater trust.

Read the executive summary and full report here: