Pharmacists, Soldiers Most Trusted Professions

And car salesmen, true to the stereotype, are the least trusted, although you really should consider that undercoating.

Doctors, pharmacists, soldiers and pilots are the most trusted professions in the country, according to a new Ipsos Reid poll, while CEOs and politicians rank alongside car salesmen as the least trustworthy. Fully 78 per cent of respondents said they trusted pharmacists, beating out doctors (75 per cent), soldiers (74 per cent), pilots (73 per cent), and teachers (65 per cent). Professions that saw the biggest rises from the 2011 include journalists (from a marginal 29 per cent up to a marginally more marginal 31 per cent), lawyers (up three points to 25 per cent), and environmental activists (up two points to 30 per cent). On the flip side, only six per cent of respondents said they trusted car salesmen, while 10 per cent said the same about federal politicians. Union leaders (16 per cent), municipal politicians (17 per cent), and CEOs (19 per cent) rounded out the bottom five, although considering their financial compensation, we doubt most people in those lines of work could give two figs about trustworthiness. Religious leaders dropped five points to 33 per cent, daycare workers fell three points to 56 per cent, and financial advisers dipped three points to 34 per cent. Perhaps the most striking decline in the annual poll has been that of police officers, whose trust level fell from 73 per cent in 2003 to 57 per cent today.