Our Speaker, Megan Spoore

 

 

 

 

 

Jennifer Lavier Jankovic introduced our speaker Megan Spoore, who delivered an informative presentation on the Edelman Trust Barometer. As a global communications firm with five offices in Canada, Edelman develops global studies on trust as a meaningful way of comparing organizations. Edelman's research has shown that organizations that score highly on the trust barometer are more likely to

Edelman has produced a trust barometer report annually since 2000. Each report is constructed around a specific theme, and the theme of the 2019 report is Trust at Work. These reports show that there has been a steady contraction in trust, and that Canadians are less likely than in the past to trust governments, organizations and CEOs. Instead, Canadians are increasingly likely to trust organizations with personal connections, i.e., their employers.

Edelman's measures of trust are based on four institutions: government, business, NGOs, and media. Canadians became distrustful of these institutions for the first time in 2017, but this improved to a neutral stance in 2019.

The informed public, comprised of those having a post-secondary education who follow the news, places a much higher degree of trust in our institutions. Our speaker explained that the mass population's high levels of distrust stems from a belief that the system is failing people.