Amy Hamm: Canadian trust in institutions is at a low point — and that's a good thing |
We have allowed activist judges, educators, politicians, public-health officials and bureaucrats to operate without accountability for too long
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Canadians are losing trust in major institutions, including Parliament and the school system. Good — because our institutions need an overhaul. Perhaps this country isn’t a lost cause, after all.
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Statistics Canada released the “confidence in institutions” results from the Canadian Social Survey for the fourth quarter of 2024 earlier this month. Survey respondents were asked to rate their confidence in police, the justice system and courts, the school system, Parliament and Canadian media. Each institution was rated on a scale of one to five.
Only 28.3 per cent of Canadians gave Parliament a rating of four or five. Media got 36.2 per cent, schools 45 per cent, the courts 48.2 per cent and police — rated the highest — had 63.4 per cent award them the highest scores.
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All these institutions, except the media, have lost public confidence since 2022. (Media saw a low point in 2023 but has since gained ground, though 36.2 per cent is certainly nothing to write home about. We can probably blame the good ol’ CBC for these dismal results.)
This means that a majority of........