Trust: Twenty Ways to Build a Better Country

From our esteemed former Governor General–and author of the bestsellers The Idea of Canada and Ingenious–a very timely guide for restoring personal, community, and national trust.

Canada’s enduring success has been based on trust–trust in each other; in our businesses, organizations, and markets; and in our public institutions and the officials who run them. David Johnston–reflecting on seven decades of personal experiences including seven years as Governor General–identifies the 20 ways we can make ourselves, our organizations, and our institutions even more worthy of trust, and in doing so build a better Canada for coming generations and the world. This new book is in part a follow-up to The Idea of Canada, in that the author draws upon his own remarkable experience to illustrate where his strong convictions have come from. In this book, however, Johnston strikes notes that are more universally applicable than those in any of this earlier works. First, he speaks directly to the reader, offering practical advice about the attitudes, approaches, and habits that make a person trustworthy. Second, he offers compelling evidence that enduring community trust can be built with similarly simple techniques. Third, by drawing examples from Canadian and international experience, he shows how a whole nation can become trustworthy and, ultimately, trusted by its citizens, allies, trading partners and other societies. In short, Trust is a much needed manual for the repair of the one social quality on which all others are based.