More Canadians trust the military than the federal government: poll 

In the lead up to Remembrance Day, Canada’s military remains one of the most trusted institutions in the country.

A new poll by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies suggests that trust in Canada’s military sits at 75 per cent. Trust in police, meanwhile, remains close behind, at 71 per cent. Only 13 per cent of Canadians distrust the armed forces and police.

This comes as the Liberal government announced an additional $81.8 billion over five years to meet NATO’s recommended two per cent GDP target for defence spending.

Meanwhile, trust in the Supreme Court, and Canada’s federal government is much lower. Sixy-five per cent of Canadians say they trust the Supreme Court, and just 47 per cent say the same about the government in Ottawa.

“The preoccupation, increasingly so across all demographics, is with security,” said Jack Jedwab, president and CEO of the Metropolis Institute and the Association for Canadian Studies. “People are directing more trust in those bodies or institutions that have primary responsibility for protecting us, or ensuring that security is well maintained.”

Levels of trust in Canada’s military and police is high across demographics. According to the poll, 66 per cent of Indigenous people trust the military and the police. Among immigrants, 70 per cent trust the military and 75 per cent trust the police.

“Despite some individual concerns that people express about instances of potentially excessive behaviours of the police or military, in general, minorities are expressing high levels of trust in those institutions that are mandated with protecting Canadians,” Jedwab said.

Trust in the institutions designed to protect Canadians varies slightly by province. Atlantic Canadians exhibit proportionally high levels of trust in the armed forces, with 84 per cent saying they trust the military. By contrast, trust is lowest in British Columbia, at 71 per cent. Jedwab said this could be due to a perception of Atlantic Canada as being more “insecure.”

“In areas where the populations perceive themselves as more vulnerable, either geographically or geopolitically or so forth, you’re getting that sort of expression come up,” he said.

A significantly lower proportion of young Canadians (aged 18 to 24), said they trust the military at 65 per cent. Almost a quarter, 23 per cent, exhibited some level of distrust.

When asked if they would consider joining Canada’s armed forces, only one in ten respondents aged 18-24 answered, “Yes.” Another 21 per cent said they have considered it in the past, while almost 60 per cent said they would not consider it.

Jedwab said this discrepancy may be due to a difference in young people’s priorities.

“The younger we are, the less we may … see security as an issue,” he said. “We may find as a result that we are more likely to question those institutions in terms of the authority they are vested with. This is coupled with the fact we’re seeing a reasonably modest extent of them considering a future career in the military.”

High support for the armed forces is most apparent when compared to the federal government.

This lack of trust in Ottawa is most pronounced in Manitoba and Saskatchewan (only 38 per cent trust the federal government) and Quebec (43 per cent). Despite talks of separation, Albertans showed relatively similar rates of trust in the federal government with that of the rest of Canada (47 per cent). Trust was highest in Atlantic Canada (56 per cent), followed by British Columbia (52 per cent) and Alberta and Ontario (both 48 per cent).

“I think that the current debates they’re having about Alberta’s place in Canada and the separation referendum, may be creating some shifts, but we haven’t seen those yet,” Jedwab said.

Jedwab said Canadians are part of a global trend towards greater trust in police and military as institutions tasked with our collective security.

“I personally think there’s a global trend when it comes to this,” Jedwab said. “There’s a real serious concern about security globally.”

The online survey of 1,537 Canadians was conducted by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies between Oct. 24 and 26. A margin of error cannot be associated with a non-probability sample in a panel survey, but a similar probability sample would have a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent, 19 times out of 20.

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