New survey results show that only a third of Canadians are optimistic about their future quality of life
By Erika Morris
Photo: iStock/dragana991.
Canada has often been recognized as one of the best countries around the world to live in. The U.S. News & World Report recently ranked us first for quality of life for the fourth year in a row and named Canada the second best country in the world overall.
Nevertheless, Canadians themselves don’t seem to be as optimistic as those rankings might suggest. According to survey results released in February by the public relations firm Edelman, only 35% of Canadians expect to be better off in five years, a number that makes us more optimistic than those in the United Kingdom—only 27% of whom expect to be better off—but less optimistic than Americans, 43% of whom are optimistic.
Edelman’s annual “trust barometer” is intended to measure the public’s faith in the government, the business community, non-governmental organizations, and the media. Based on a survey of 1,500 Canadians, the survey also found that 76% of Canadians are concerned about losing their jobs, with about half of those people citing as reasons worries about a potential recession and the rise of the gig economy.
The Edelman survey divides respondents into two groups: the “informed public,” who generally have higher incomes and more education and follow the news, and the everybody else, the “mass public.” The survey showed greater confidence among the informed public than in the general public: 47% think they’ll be better off five years from now—but that number was 53% last year.
