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Is Trust High on Your Agenda?
By
Bob Orrick
Did Reader's Digest have an ulterior motive [to put its name before Canadian consumers] when it commissioned a national survey recently or was it truly interested in determining who Canadians trust the most. To think that it might have been the former flies in the face of the popularity of Reader's Digest among Canadian readers. With 1.2 million copies sold monthly, the magazine stands near or at the top of recognised magazines in this country. That leaves us to consider the latter motive.
The Ipsos-Reid survey showed that ninety-one per cent of Canadians put their trust in pharmacists while at the other end of the scale-of-trust at nine per cent were national politicians. Nothing startling in that although having pharmacists at the top might surprise the doctors who ranked second at eighty-five per cent. After all, it is those same doctors who write the prescriptions that the pharmacists fill. One might think that a doctor's decision as to which drug to prescribe for an ailing patient might rank a tad higher than the pharmacist that fills the Rx.
That national politicians rank as the bottom feeders in the survey should come as no surprise to those Canadians who have to live daily with the stupidity and incompetence foisted on them by those bottom feeders. [Hello, Ottawa; how is the weather down there in the cellar?] Interestingly, local politicians fared only slightly better at fourteen per cent. One suspects that not many municipal councils are providing their over-taxed citizens with good government.
One item that might seem to be a bit of an anomaly is that both trade unions and CEOs garnered a failing twenty-one per cent trust among Canadians. There has to be a message in there somewhere. Can it be that trade unionist are not the white knights that they seem to think they are and is it possible that the CEOs have been humbled by the shenanigans of some company bosses of late? When management and union sit down to bargain a collective agreement, it might be beneficial for both sides to recall this survey and realise that seventy-nine per cent of Canadians - the ones who purchase those good and services produced by the CEO-dominated companies and assembled or disbursed by the trade unionists - view them with a jaundiced eye. Perhaps it is time company bigwigs climbed down off their self-promoted pedestals and smelled the air that surrounds the common folk of this land; and perhaps it is time trade union bosses hauled themselves into the present century and let go of their shop-worn ideology of the 1930s.
For years, motorists have complained that auto mechanics - some, not all - have been a bit on the shady side when suggesting or carrying out repairs to vehicles. The Ipsos-Reid survey confirmed that complaint and placed auto mechanics at thirty-three per cent on the trust scale. One suspects that qualified, reputable auto repair shops rank higher than thirty-three per cent and that the ranking was drawn down by backyard operators who operate close to the profit margin and, therefore, become creative in billing.
The auto mechanics can feel proud, perhaps, when compared to auto salesmen who barely nudge out the bottom-feeding national politicians. The guys and gals who sell our vehicles pulled in the trust of ten per cent despite the best efforts of the major auto manufacturers to convince the buying public that things are on the upswing and that times have changed. Salesmen no longer wear loud, checked, wide-lapelled jackets with equally gaudy trousers and smoke horrible, smelly stogies that foul the air. Or, that is the impression the industry presents; perhaps Canadian vehicle purchasers see things differently.
One area that does merit serious thought is in the field of religion. Religious institutions were given the trust of only thirty-five per cent of Canadians. One would have thought that religion would rank higher and that the various religious institutions would have fared better. After all, when the veneer of society is stripped away, each of us at one time or another feels a need for religion. While that result is surprising, the forty-four per cent trust that the judicial system received is also surprising in that is seems to be rather on the high end.
In Canada today, the judicial system is seen in a poor light. The Canadian public is becoming more and more disrespectful of judges and the court system as case after case is either thrown out of court or the accused is given a light sentence or a limp slap on the wrist. Canadians are becoming fed up with a judiciary that tends to see accused as victims and victims as accused. Recent reports suggest that some police forces are turning a blind eye to petty crime because after time and effort - not to mention taxpayers' money - being spent the accused is given a free ride and quick exit from court; the tacit message is that it is okay to carry on committing petty crime. The difficulty is that that petty crime often turns into serious crime. The old adage about nipping something in the bud seems to be lost on many of this country's courts. Some Canadians reckon it is time to return to a more sensible society when a bit of old-fashioned barnyard justice was meted out smartly to those who transgressed against society. Forty-four per cent for the judicial system - seems a tad high from this vantage point.
Of course, the national politicians who enact the statutes that the court system administers cannot hide in their holes and escape their share of the blame. If they were to introduce better bills that were aimed to curb crime rather than to mollycoddle the accused, then perhaps both the national politicians at nine per cent and the judicial system at forty-four per cent would improve their trust standing and the country would be the beneficiary.
As to lawyers, well they snuck in at twenty-nine per cent trust, not something to shout about.
Switching slightly to the top and bottom five most trusted industries, we see that medical research leads the parade followed by drug and pharmaceutical then banking, airline and tourism. From the bottom up, they are: tobacco at 29th position, advertising one step up, then in order cellular phone, chemical, and at 25th spot, oil.
The Ipsos-Reid survey showed that for Canadians integrity and reliability, along with trust, are qualities that count high. This segment has touched on the trust factor, only.
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Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
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