Canada is the world’s most reputable country: survey

By Emma Crawford Hampel | July 5, 2017, 10:31 a.m., https://www.biv.com/article/20...able-country-survey/

The United States’ global reputation took a major hit over the past year, according to an international survey conducted by the Reputation Institute, but Canada’s image improved over the period, coming in first place in a list of the world’s 55 biggest economies in terms of GDP.

Canada jumped from second place in 2016 to first place this year, according to the institute’s annual RepTrak report, eking out a small advantage over Switzerland, which came in second. Sweden came in third after coming in first place last year.

“A country’s reputation has a direct impact on tourism, its exports and foreign investment,” said Reputation Institute managing partner Fernando Prado.

“The striking thing about Canada is that the nation's reputation is equally strong both inside and outside its borders.”

Canada’s image improved because of its increasingly positive reputation for being a safe place to live. As well, it is seen as an ethical country with an effective government. The country’s social and economic policies are viewed as progressive and the business environment is seen as favourable.

According to the survey, Canadians themselves have the highest “internal reputation” of all countries surveyed.

“While Canadians are known for moderation and modesty, our confidence in our place in the world is on the rise, with the highest self-image of any nation,” said Daniel Tisch, president and CEO of Argyle Public Relationships.

“While we celebrate our achievements as a nation… our biggest challenge will be to guard against complacency and continue to look outwardly to grown our economy.”

The institute conducts the yearly survey by looking into a number of variables that measure each country’s government effectiveness, economy and quality of life. It examines the world’s 55 largest economies by conducting online interviews with more than 39,000 individuals in the general public from the G8 countries.

The United States’s reputation has taken a major hit as a result of Donald Trump. The country didn’t rank in the top 20 of all those examined. Its position fell from number 28 to 38.

“The United States is not only experiencing the worst reputation loss in terms of percentage, but also in terms of ranking index positions, dropping from 28th in 2016 to 38th in 2017,” the Reputation Institute said in a press release.

“The main setbacks for the reputation of the United States are concentrated in the variables ‘is run by an effective government,’ ‘has adopted progressive social and economic policies,’ ‘ethical country with high transparency and low corruption,’ ‘is a responsible participant in the global community’ and ‘operates efficiently.’”

The U.S. ranks just above Venezuela, Egypt and Qatar.

A link to the full report can be found here.