Canadians trust their family doctor more than the PM on COVID-19, says poll
By Laura Osman, The Canadian Press
Canadians trust health professionals like their family doctor first and foremost when it comes to the COVID-19 crisis, a new poll suggests.
The poll, conducted by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies, asked respondents to rate their level of trust in various institutions, including public health officials and politicians.
Health professionals like doctors and nurses had the highest level of trust in Canada, with 92 per cent support. Public health officials, generally, followed close behind at 81 per cent, while 72 per cent of respondents said they trusted chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam.
That’s no surprise, said Christian Bourque, executive vice-president of Leger. He said most people trust the people they’re closest to.
“I was expecting more of a gap between those who you interact with versus those that you see,” he said.
The World Health Organization, which has faced criticism, including from the Conservatives, for how it responded to the novel coronavirus in China, was trusted by 68 per cent of Canadians. Fifty-four per cent said they trusted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
At the lower end of the spectrum, only 50 per cent of Canadians said they trust the media, though that has been the case for a long time and has not changed as a result of the pandemic, said Bourque.
The trust Canadians show in their institutions ranked much higher than those of respondents from the United States in most categories, although President Donald Trump had the support of 12 per cent of Canadians compared to 38 per cent of respondents in the U.S.
The poll, conducted April 17-19, surveyed 1,504 adult Canadians and 1,001 adult Americans randomly recruited from Leger’s online panel. Internet-based surveys cannot be assigned a margin of error because they are not considered random samples.
Bourque said that trust in institutions may be why Canadians have been so faithful about abiding by physical distancing measures over the last several weeks.
Tags: Canadian conservatives, Canadian news, Canadian politics, Canadians trust their family doctor more than the PM on COVID-19, Conservative Canadians, conservatives, pipelines, right for Canada, says poll
Categorised in: Canadian News