Canadian Tire was the top domestic brand in Leger’s recent most reputable companies survey, while perennial placer Google nabbed the number one spot overall.

The 2024 Leger reputational research includes insights from 38,000 Canadians surveying 300 companies from December to January, based on financial strength, social responsibility, honesty and transparency, quality, attachment, and innovation.

Canadian Tire was the number one Canadian brand, ahead of second place (and sixth overall) Shoppers Drug Mart, and third place (and ninth overall) Dollarama, a beneficiary of a high inflation environment. Shoppers Drug Mart, Leger notes, is relatively immune from its parent’s “Loblaw effect,” a growing discontent among grocery customers in Canada who are frustrated with rising price of food. The pharma retailer, by contrast, has been “relatively insulated from the [reputational] decline,” slipping from a 78 last year, to a 69 score this time, but still highly regarded by respondents, perhaps as while it sells groceries, that is not its primary business.

The fourth highest-ranking Canadian company (and 12th overall) was Interac, a standout and a bit of an outlier, Leger says, amid the Top 15 reputational winners that overwhelmingly skew towards retailers like Winners, Home Hardware and Mark’s, or food brands like A&W, Maple Leaf, McCain and Tim Hortons.

Google has finished in the Top 10 of the list 10 times in the past decade, capturing the top spot six times. The second highest ranking brand was Sony.

Weston saw the steepest reputational decline, falling 10 points, followed by recently shuttered Sunwing, and Pfizer. As Leger notes, with fewer Canadians getting updated vaccines in 2023, the likes of Pfizer and Moderna have “fallen off the radar a little bit.”

The telco sector, whose reputation took a big hit, has in part recovered thanks to the availability of a 5G network on the Toronto transit, currying favour with consumers.

Leger is also reporting reputational declines across the board for airlines, Porter excepted.

Finally, Leger notes that there is some overlap between brand and employer reputation.

Leger also tabulated an “employer reputation score” across four main dimensions: how people feel about the working atmosphere, the future of the company, its attractiveness as an employer and its values. Google again took the top spot, followed by Costco, Apple, the NHL and Microsoft. Shoppers Drug Mart and Canada Post were the two notable Canadian names on the list.