There’s a fundamental misunderstanding of how different governments operate in different countries. China’s government operates from the top down (from Xi Jinping down to the national, province, and municipality level). Russia’s government operates through state-linked enterprises that are definitely not government-owned. America’s government operates from the bottom up (from PACs and lobbying groups up to the federal government). American state-sponsored electoral interference is an inherently different problem than Chinese or Russian interference because there are many American actors at play. These include those American PACs and SIGs and other lobbying groups looking to use their billions of dollars in funding to push their ideals around the world by directly and indirectly interfering with foreign elections.
At the end of the day, foreign interference is anything that leads to Canada pursuing activities not in its own best interest from anyone that isn’t Canadian (if we want to fuck ourselves up, we have that right) and funded with non-Canadian money. This has clearly happened from Chinese, Russian, AND American sources and it needs to stop if we want to protect our democracy.
Let’s not pretend that racist or xenophobic people don’t exist in Canada. Ignoring them would be a very dangerous thing to do, Canadians don’t need external influence to be racist.
Of course, but this is true for any political movement, even if it’s the one you’re rooting for. It’s a bit far fetched, but would you say that leftist people in Canada are strongly getting influenced by people like Bernie Sanders and AOC and that it should be considered foreign interference?
I mean, I would make the argument that Canadian media isn’t being bought by leftist ownership groups from the US in the same way as, for example, Postmedia has almost monopolized Canadian newspapers through American right wing ownership. Major media seems like a more direct and present form of political influence than a more natural spread through observation like what I believe you’re describing.
…would you say that leftist people in Canada are strongly getting influenced by people like Bernie Sanders and AOC and that it should be considered foreign interference?
No, because Sanders and Cortez would be centrists to mildly leftist in Canada. Half the Liberal party, most of the Bloc and all of the NDP are well to the left of Sanders.
Only in the US, where the Overton window is from “mildly corporatist neoliberalism” to “full-throated fascism” do people like Sanders seem at all radical.
Because that would mean acknowledging we’re very vulnerable to this type of thing and in Canada we like to pretend bad stuff just isn’t happening. It’s easier that way for our politicians to focus the ire of Canadians on bike lanes than to face this kind of stuff head on. Example: news is no longer talking about ~corporate price gouging~ inflation as if it suddenly isn’t happening anymore. We need something else to be outraged about! Argh!
The simple answer to this is that our democracy has degraded to finding problems rather than finding solutions. Problems are easy, while solutions are hard… but problems get clicks. Maybe it’s a good thing that Google and Meta banned Canadian journalism because it means that we can go back to more in-depth journalism?
I don’t think the ban will last though. They caved to Australia after a few days and they’re even smaller than we are.
Koch brothers already funds most center right think tanks in Canada. like Fraser Institute and institut économique de Montréal .
Because they’re white people, and their backers are rich.
That’s all you need to know. The far-right is allowed more latitude because, at least for now, they’re useful idiots for the wealthy who can use their votes to further the agenda of tax cuts and deregulation. The problem is of the “riding the tiger” variety: at some point, the rabble will get out of control, and some of the wealthy will have their Fritz Thyssen moment.
