Back to today’s briefing

Story perspectives

Canadian election losers' social trust falls up to six points

7/30/2026

34 3 Full Breakdown

Summary

Story summary

Canadian researchers found voters whose preferred party loses a national election report lower social trust.
Electoral losers were about 3.8 percentage points less likely to trust others than winners.
Limiting the comparison to the winner and primary runner-up raised the gap to roughly six points.
Optimistic losers who expected their party to win and highly polarized voters each saw a ten-point trust drop in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

1 of 1

Story summary

Canadian researchers found voters whose preferred party loses a national election report lower social trust.
Electoral losers were about 3.8 percentage points less likely to trust others than winners.
Limiting the comparison to the winner and primary runner-up raised the gap to roughly six points.
Optimistic losers who expected their party to win and highly polarized voters each saw a ten-point trust drop in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.