Sound like a neighbour, not a bureaucracy

On trust, plain language, and why “please be advised” is quietly killing your credibility.

Only 50 per cent of Canadians say they trust government (2025 data). That number comes from Edelman, a global public relations firm that has been tracking trust for decades. It is not a blip. It is not a methodology problem. It is a real and persistent gap — and local governments feel it every single day, in comment threads, at public meetings, and in the tone of emails that land in the inbox at 9 p.m.

Here is the part that often gets buried in that statistic: while government leaders sit near the bottom of the trust list, neighbours sit at 68 per cent. That is nearly a 20-point gap. And it tells us something important about what we need to do.

Sound like a neighbour.

Not a lawyer. Not a policy document that accidentally got a social media account. A neighbour — someone who is helpful, human, and genuinely talking to you rather than at you.

We saw this work in real time during the pandemic. Dr. Bonnie Henry became “Bonnie” because she showed up like someone we knew. She admitted she was scared too. She had not seen her family either. She wore a mask and meant it. Her messages were clear and her tone was human, and people followed along — not because they were told to, but because they trusted her.

Then the pandemic wound down and we quietly slid back into “please be advised” language. Jargon no one uses at the dinner table. Passive voice. Long sentences loaded with qualifications. And trust slid back down with it.

The lesson is not complicated. When we communicate in plain language, acknowledge what is real, and treat residents like adults who can handle the truth, trust goes up. When we hide behind bureaucratic phrasing and hope no one notices, it goes the other way — and that slide is hard to reverse.

This is not just about word choice. It is about who you are imagining when you write. Are you writing for the policy file, or are you writing for the person who is going to read it on their phone between picking up their kids and making dinner?

Write for that person. Answer the questions they are actually asking. Use the words they use. And when the subject matter is complicated, do not make the writing complicated too — that only makes people feel like something is being hidden.

Trust is built over time, one interaction at a time, by showing up consistently and sounding like someone worth listening to. It does not require a rebrand or a new communications strategy. It requires intention.

Start there. Be the neighbour.

Five things you can do right now

1. Read your last three public-facing communications out loud. If they sound like a policy document, rewrite them like you are explaining it to someone you ran into at the grocery store.
2. Cut “please be advised,” “as per our previous communication,” and “at this time” from your templates. None of those phrases appear in normal human conversation.
3. Before you publish anything, ask: what does my audience actually want to know? Answer that question first. Then add context. Not the other way around.
4. When a decision is unpopular, say so. Acknowledge the frustration before you explain the rationale. Skipping that step costs you more trust than the decision itself.
5. Track your engagement patterns. Are people asking the same questions over and over? That is a signal your messaging is not landing — and an opportunity to fix it before it becomes a bigger problem.