So many public systems in Canada & the United States seem the same. Whether it’s banks or courts, elections or the police, the systems in either country are similar, yet the way people feel about them can be quite different. National surveys show that Canadians have a lot more confidence in a few systems than Americans do.
Some of the differences in how people feel have existed for years. Here are ten systems that Canadians trust that Americans don’t. Which of these do you recognize from your own experience?
Police services
Canadians generally feel more confident in their police forces than Americans do in the U.S. ones. Statistics Canada found that 62% of Canadians said they felt high levels of confidence in law enforcement.
However, Gallup reported that Americans are more split on the police. Only 51% of Americans felt strong confidence in the police, according to a Gallup survey. Clearly, there’s a gap in how people feel about the law on either side of the border.
The courts and justice system
Attitudes towards the courts are even more divided, as 49% of Canadians reported that they felt strong confidence in the justice system & courts. The data comes from a 2023 Statistics Canada survey.
But Americans don’t feel the same way because Gallup data found that less than 25% of them feel high levels of confidence in the criminal justice system. It was actually one of the national institutions that Americans trust the least.
The Supreme Court
We can’t forget about how people in each nation feel about their top courts. 49% of Canadians apparently say they trust the Canadian Supreme Court, which may not seem like much, but it’s quite different from America.
A mere 25% of Americans said they have strong confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court. There’s clearly a gap in how people in each country feel about the credibility of the highest courts in their respective nations.
Public K–12 schools
Canadians generally have more of a positive attitude towards public schools than Americans do. 45% of Canadians feel confident in their school system, according to 2023 data. But only 35% of Americans feel the same way.
2025 data actually reported a record low in Americans’ feelings towards the quality of K-12 education.
Major banks and the retail banking system
You might be surprised to learn that Canadians tend to have more trust in traditional banks than Americans. According to polls, 82% of Canadians trust banks to be responsible with their money. Yet only a quarter of Americans have high confidence in financial institutions.
There’s clearly quite a big gap in how people from each country feel about financial institutions. People north of the border appear to see them as being more reliable.
Food inspection and food-supply safety oversight
Even our attitudes towards the food industry are quite different. Most Americans feel quite negative about how the national food safety system works, with only 57% of them trusting the federal government to keep their food safe.
It’s a rather different story in Canada. The majority of Canadians trust that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency does a good job in keeping food safe, as surveys found that 76% of them felt this way.
The public health guidance system
That’s not all for health. Officials have been tracking how the public feels about public health guidance since the COVID-19 pandemic, and they found that 61% of adults trust the CDC a fair amount.
Surveys in Canada put Canadians’ trust in public health authorities slightly higher. They generally feel more confident that the national health system does well by them than Americans do.
The national government
People’s sense of trust in their national government is rather different in each country. Only 30% of Americans have confidence in their national government, placing America last among the G7 countries.
Canadians, on the whole, are much more positive about their national systems. They rank quite a bit higher in terms of overall institutional trust, so it appears that they feel more positive about the federal government.
The national retirement pension system
The majority of Canadians feel more secure about what’s waiting for them after their working lives finish than Americans do. A CPP Investments survey found that of all the Canadians who understand the Canada Pension Plan, 73% of them feel confident about how it’s being handled.
Yet a mere 50% of non-retired Americans felt the same way about the U.S.’s Social Security system. They appear to doubt whether the system will actually be able to pay them benefits in the future.
Tax collection agencies (CRA & IRS)
The tax policy of each country is quite different, and so are attitudes towards it. Federal tax agency ratings in America show that roughly 25% of Americans believe that the IRS is doing an excellent or good job. Clearly, they don’t feel very confident in this system.
But Canadians are, overall, more positive about the tax system. The Canada Revenue Agency found that around 68% of Canadians have trust in the system’s annual reporting capabilities.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
Like our content? Be sure to follow us.