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.
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.
Yall are America lite, and have many of the same problems. You guys are going to have people forming similar opinions.
There’s a clear culture shock when I go to the US, even the first one being that we acknowledge the difference between America and the United States of America 😉 Many other Canadians don’t realize the difference, and for some reason, they tend to be on the right side of the political compass. Culturally speaking, we’re closer to the Brits, but with an American lifestyle.
While I love to make this same joke, it’s just not true. I immigrated to Canada from the US, the cultural differences are a bit dramatic. Living in rural US not recycling is “acceptable” because it’s impossible to manage and there’s no trash pickup etc. Whereas in rural Canada I’ve been scolded by my in laws for not throwing a piece of an olive into green bin vs the trash. Also don’t get them started on gun violence in American schools, or wearing shoes in the house.
Yall are America lite, and have many of the same problems. You guys are going to have people forming similar opinions.
Part of the problem is that the Conservatives welcome it because they see it will help them in elections.
