Canadians falling prey to conspiracy theories despite strong trust in institutions: poll

Two in five Canadian voters believe that a small cabal 'secretly manipulates' world affairs, a poll conducted for Elections Canada suggests.

The good news is Canadians have a lot of trust in their institutions.

The not-so-good news is that a strong minority of Canadians believe a small cabal of people “secretly manipulate” world events from the shadows.

New polling conducted for Elections Canada suggested that Canadians have strong confidence in institutions like the elections agency (78 per cent), the police (74 per cent), the mainstream media (54 per cent) and provincial and federal governments (56 per cent and 55 per cent, respectively).

And unlike our neighbours to the south, a strong majority of Canadians – 86 per cent – believe in Elections Canada to fairly run federal elections. The overwhelming confidence suggests any movement to cast federal election results as illegitimate – such as the “Stop the Steal” movement in the U.S. – would be a non-starter in Canada.

But the poll – conducted by Leger, and based on a survey of 2,582 adults between April 1 and April 11 – also found that a surprising number of Canadians are willing to believe in conspiracy theories.

Leger asked a series of questions related to the “conspiracy mindset.” The polling company found that two in five Canadians (40 per cent) considered it “definitely” or “probably true” that “certain significant events have been the result of the activity of a small group that secretly manipulates world events.”

“The number is massive and absolutely surprising and worrying,” said Amarnath Amarasingam, a Queen’s University professor who researches extremism and online communities.

“At the same time, though, the problem with these kinds of surveys is that it allows people to read into the questions their own subjective issues.”