Politicians are among the least trusted professionals in Canadian society, according to a new national survey for Ryerson University.

The Gandalf Group poll — conducted for the Ted Rogers School of Management’s Jim Pattison Ethical Leadership Education and Research Program — found just 13 per cent of respondents trusted politicians to behave ethically in fulfilling their duties.

Only lobbyists, at 9 per cent, fare worse as a profession.

Political staffers, at 16 per cent, did almost as dismally as their bosses.

Journalists, by comparison, were viewed favourably by 33 per cent.

Doctors did best as a profession with 78 per cent trusting them “to live up to both public and professional standards in fulfilling their duties.”

Judges came in second at 65 per cent, ahead of police officers at 60 per cent and public servants at 36 per cent.

Business CEOs were at 22 per cent and union leaders at 22 per cent.

Gandalf principal David Herle, who ran Premier Kathleen Wynne’s successful June 12 election campaign, said in a statement that he was astonished by his firm’s findings.

“After over 20 years in opinion research, it comes as no surprise that politics is not the most respected profession, but the findings of this survey with respect to the extent of the cynicism is shocking,” said Herle.

“The gap between politicians and others in public life, the extent to which our politics is believed to be inherently corrupting, and the frequency with which private interests are assumed to trump the public interest are all corrosive to democracy.”

Gandalf’s online-panel survey was conducted between Oct. 17 and 22 with 1,039 people polled nationwide and an additional 200 in the Greater Toronto Area — for a total of 407 in this region — to achieve more reliable results.

Nationally, the margin of error was within 3.1 percentage points and in the GTA it was 4.86 percentage points.

In terms of which level of government was seen as having the most ethical politicians, 67 per cent said they were “satisfied” or “moderately satisfied” with the behaviour of those at the municipal level.

By contrast, 61 per cent expressed some satisfaction and with the ethics of federal MPs, 58 per cent with provincial members and 44 per cent with senators.

The survey also found that 63 per cent felt politics corrupts otherwise honest people.

“These results suggest Canadians are facing a crisis of confidence in the integrity of their politicians at all levels of government,” said Chris MacDonald, a Ryerson professor and co-author of the study.

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“This is bad for democracy in Canada.”

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