MONTREAL -- A study by the Association for Canadian Studies (ACS) suggests that Americans trust Canadians more than they trust themselves.
According to the survey, 72.5 per cent of Americans trust Canadians, compared to 70 per cent who trust other Americans.
On the flip side, 88 per cent of Canadians trust their countrymen but only 34 per cent trust Americans.
Twenty-one per cent of Canadians don't trust Americans at all while only 7.2 per cent of Americans feel that way about their northern neighbours.
According to Jack Jedwab, President and CEO of ACS, the U.S. and Canadian governments’ approaches to the COVID-19 pandemic greatly influenced respondents’ trust in the countries.
“There was a big slide in trust when you compare the answers from April to the pre-pandemic ones from November,” Jedwab told CTV News.
More Americans said they trust Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (51 per cent) than President Donald Trump (38 per cent). While 56 per cent of Canadians said they trust Trudeau, only 12 per cent said the same about Trump.
1,515 Canadians and 1,012 Americans aged 18 or older were randomly recruited for the survey, using Leger Opinion’s (LEO) online panel.
The surveys took place from Nov. 28 to Nov. 30, 2019 and from April 24 to April 26, 2020.
QUEBEC DISTRUST
Trust in Americans among Quebecers dropped from 54 per cent to 17 per cent between November 2019 and April 2020, the lowest percentage of all provinces.
Jedwab suspects that because Quebec was most affected by COVID-19, respondents were more sensitive to Americans’ behaviour throughout the health crisis.
“The perception that Americans aren’t following the guidelines in a way that Canadians are following them, I think, had a profound impact on how Canadians view Americans,” Jack Jedwab, President and CEO of ACS, told CTV News. “How Donald Trump is conducting himself has also significantly reduced trust.”
