New Democrat MP Leah Gazan probably thought she was speaking to a small and like-minded group of Canadian NDP supporters when she gave a lengthy briefing during a news conference in Ottawa earlier this month.
In fact, he had been navigating the wooden skin of US culture war politics.
His use of the phrase “MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+” – which many Canadians will likely struggle to explain – was fodder for Fox News and ridiculed throughout the MAGAsphere. Everyone from Elon Musk to Ted Cruz has weighed in with their thoughts on the matter.
It was a sign of how much things have changed that a throwaway line from an opposition backbencher at a small Ottawa news conference could go viral in the US.
The old truism that Americans don’t know anything about Canadian politics and don’t care isn’t as true as it used to be – at least, not the second part.
In case Canadians feel irritated by their problems of being ignored in the great southern country, now they have a chance to find out what it is like if the US takes an interest.
They may miss the old days of relative obscurity.
Truck drivers are attracting attention in America
A truckload in early 2022 could mark the beginning of widespread US interest in Canadian domestic politics, catching the interest of President Donald Trump and quickly becoming a MAGA cause.
“Even before the truckers draft, there was some American interest in the way Canadian governments shut down, shut down,” said Aengus Bridgman, director of McGill University’s Media Ecosystem Observatory. Americans were facing similar problems of public health and private liberties in their states.
The convoy went viral, inspiring Americans to donate money and express the views of Trump and other MAGA figures in what was, until then, a rare example of American emotional investment in a Canadian domestic political issue.
Once they were married, that interest never died, Bridgman said.
“We just saw it near the ostrich farm,” he said. “There are moments in Canada where something can be weaponized or integrated — and we see it sometimes with aboriginal issues, sometimes we see it all around. [medical assistance in dying]sometimes we see it around drug access – these times it will be picked up and spread very quickly.”
Patrick Lennox, former RCMP intelligence officer and author of the book At Home and Abroad: Canada-US Relations and Canada’s Place in the Worldsays that it has become commonplace for high-level US politicians to ponder those Canadian issues.
“[U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard] Lutnick was going on about Canada this week,” Lennox told CBC News. “You’re seeing a lot of it, and I think a lot because Canada is such a study unlike the United States right now.”
But while Canada makes a good foil for right-wing politicians in the US, Lennox says it’s not seen as foreign or very different.
“I think they see us as a green country in many ways. We get the same kind of treatment [Gov.] Gavin Newsom performs in California. We have been part of the struggle in many ways.”
Woke, weak, effeminate, oppressive Canada
In the MAGAsphere, Canada is often portrayed as a country suffering from awakening, overcome by Chinese Communist intervention and Indian immigration, where free speech is stifled and Albertans – portrayed as salt farmers and roughnecks – wish to escape the embrace of the United States.
Jennifer Welsh, head of McGill’s Max Bell School of Public Policy, says Canada’s portrayal is not too far from the US national security strategy, “where US allies, and in this case a close neighbor, are presented with ideas and policy approaches that the far right in the United States, and the MAGA movement in particular, see as the destruction of Western civilization.”
“We see this with concern about our turn to the emerging system, but remember that it is part of a broader context.”
Welsh says the US government has aggressively pursued this worldview in Europe, noting Vice President JD Vance’s recent week-long stay in Hungary where he broke all communications rules by openly campaigning for Moscow-friendly Viktor Orban.
“On the same trip to Europe, Vance spoke to the leader of the AfD in Germany, breaking a long-standing law. Also, the AfD is questioning Germany’s acceptance of what is considered a liberal agenda. The former US Homeland Security secretary traveled to Poland during their presidential election, and urged Polish voters to elect what he called the right Trump.”
Welsh says the administration has also made clear its preferences in the UK where London Mayor Sadiq Khan is often targeted by MAGA and Trump, who has made no secret of his support for UK Leader Nigel Farage.
“It’s part of a larger attack on America’s allies,” Welsh said.
Expect more disruption in Alberta
“The global media ecosystem has no boundaries,” Lennox said. “They’re pushing these ideas as a global organization, and they’re using success in one area to expand opportunities elsewhere.”
They did not meet with success in Hungary, where Orban slipped in the polls following Vance’s intervention and lost. But Vance wasn’t alone in the distraction, Lennox said.
“Trump’s tweeting on Truth Social was equally open and bold and bold, just a little meddling in the domestic politics of that country. Should we expect that here? Absolutely. We’ll see that, and we’ll see it over the summer as this secessionist poll in Alberta starts to build.”
This is everything you don’t want in an information center. It’s very worrying– Aengus Bridgman, McGill University
Would Vance, or other administration figures, even try to campaign in Alberta to woo separatist voters? Welsh doesn’t cut it. “
“The visit of Vance and senior US officials should make us all sit up, I believe, and ask if this case is possible. We should not rule it out, given what we have seen and the interest that the US seems to be taking in that survey.”
Alberta looks set to be ground zero for Americans attached to Canadian politics in the near future, if the present is any guide.
Bridgman’s research unit at McGill found clear evidence of non-Canadian social media campaigns involving heavy use of AI “slopaganda” that appear to have both an organization and money behind it.
“This study really covers the real YouTube network,” he told CBC News. “When I say I’m not authentic, what I mean is that these are clearly not people from Alberta who are interested in the future of Alberta, but they present themselves as Alberta, they present themselves as Canadians and they are interested in the future of their communities.”
Still, Bridgman says there are signs.
“It’s been said over and over in all the videos that they don’t know much about Canadian politics,” he said. “These people talk about the country and politics they know nothing about.”
Perhaps the most shocking thing about this campaign is its scale, Bridgman said.
“They’ve racked up 40 million views in the past year, which is comparable in size to the actual discussion on YouTube of Albertans advocating secession.”
YouTube videos convey the message that Albertans are being ripped off by Canada. They advocate not only secession, but union with the United States.
“They can’t talk about it enough,” Bridgman said. “One of the videos talks about how the US will have the 51st through 57th states. It’s not clear exactly which states it has.”
It is not clear who is behind the ‘slopaganda’
While foreign interference is often thought to come from state actors, Bridgman says the world of MAGA channels and activists can absolutely produce their own campaigns for their own reasons, without government input.
“What we find over and over again are these rare occasions of using the instrumentation of Canadian politics for the domestic audience of the US. Indeed, what is happening is that there is a lot of money in US politics, a lot of viewers … and there is a kind of angry group that runs a very profitable offensive machine,” he said.
“They’ve made it their mission to post things every day that appear to be informative to their audience, but in reality they’re trying to fuel and highlight culture war issues and provide reasons to engage with clickbait content. And that community has always been wary of this type of content.”
Angry experts are driven mainly by financial incentives, however, and Bridgman says it’s not clear that’s the case with YouTube’s campaign.
“Forty million views is a lot of views, but in terms of YouTube monetization it doesn’t represent a huge amount of money, and it’s unlikely to cover operating costs.”
The campaign includes the use of at least two paid voice actors, as well as AI. McGill investigators tracked down one of those voice actors in Pennsylvania, Bridgman said, although the person declined to answer questions.
“We cannot confirm who is behind this. We do not know their intentions. But we must take this as seriously as we can to do information work. These are true accounts during a polarizing moment, trying to inflame things, lying to Canadians and Albertans and pretending to be there,” he said.
“It’s everything you don’t want in an information environment. It’s very frustrating.”
