Canada is inoculated against election interference

It began as soon as we got a new Prime Minister. Of course it did. It’s just how things work now.

The above is perhaps the most obvious smear out there. But there are plenty of others. (Including some awful shit about the PM’s child, which is just shameful.) I can scroll through my For You feed on X right now and it’s an absolute cesspool of anti-Carney, pro-Conservative disinformation.

That includes the occasional hard-right, digitally altered newscast showing support for the People’s Party of Canada rising to levels that could form government. I am so serious about this. Check it out.)

All of this will be amplified by bad actors and organizations, and in many cases by conservative staffers or supporters or even candidates, who can claim the plausible deniability of not having made the statement or accusation themselves. Yet they will be more than happy to “just share what people are discussing”.

You know this works. I know how this works. But here’s why I am optimistic. Because after the past year, everyone now knows how this works. We just saw it work in real time, to disastrous consequences. And the people who did it are now threatening our country’s existence.

Canadian media—broadcast, print, digital, social, whatever—is (my own estimate!) 65 percent or more American media. Many Canadians were thoroughly engaged in last year’s American election. The spectre of Trump has a way of doing that, even without talk of annexation.

Those Canadians all saw the way media platforms were weaponized against democrats, flooded with either outright lies (“They’re eating the pets!”) or simple denials of obvious reality (“I have nothing to do with Project 2025!”).

And sure, call me an optimist if you want, but I don’t think we’re stupid. Especially not right now. Not with so much on the line.

That’s not to say some Canadians (on both sides, but let me be clear, on the right side far more often) won’t amplify dis and misinformation when they believe it to be in their party’s best interest. They are using the tools of bad faith that have been handed to them in lieu of the hard work of actual political volunteering. It’s easy and it’s what they got. But I am very skeptical that after everything we have seen over the past year, that “Epstein and Carney” or “actually Trump WANTS Carney to win because he’s scared of Poilievre” will do much to convince a nation suddenly comprised of tens of millions of single-issue voters.

The past year has forced a ton of average Canadians, who would honestly rather not care about politics beyond being sick of Trudeau and the carbon tax, to learn way more than they ever wanted to about what happens to a country when you believe the crap on the internet and vote because of it.

Canadians no longer trust the United States of America. And are no longer interested in consuming its products. We’ve seen that extend from groceries and Amazon orders all the way up to major purchases of vehicles. And that applies to American media, too. Especially platforms owned by the rich men who support the guy who now wants their country. (Side note: It would be interesting to update this Reuters study at some point this year…)

All of this is to say, I don’t believe we’re about to fall for this crap, in this moment. Canadians may well choose to vote Conservative because they are tired of being run by Liberals, and they believe that a decade of them in power did not make their lives much better. But I don’t think they’ll make that choice because they believe that Mark Carney secretly plans to hand the country over to the World Economic Forum. And I think they will punish anyone who tries to convince them of that at the polls.

Disinformation works on the lazy voter. I don’t think there will be very many lazy Canadian voters in this election.

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