Canada's election offers fodder for US right-wing influencers

Right-wing US personalities who helped propel Donald Trump's 2024 electoral win have weighed in on Canada's upcoming election, with at-times misleading warnings about a range of political issues, including immigration.

These media figures often hold up Canada as a case study of a nation where core values like free speech are being purged, with arguments that often cite flawed evidence but may have reached a segment of voters ahead of Monday's election, experts said.

Charlie Kirk -- a US conservative activist and Trump ally -- recently invited the leader of Canada's far-right People's Party, Maxime Bernier, on his show to talk about immigration.

Bernier, whose fringe party has no seats in parliament, told Kirk that foreigners moving to Canada amounted to "replacement theory in action," referring to a conspiracy theory that talks about a plot to replace white people with immigrants.

Meanwhile, top podcaster Joe Rogan has claimed Canadians cannot express themselves online, implying the country is so authoritarian he would "rather go to Russia" than Montreal.

Rogan posted on X in February that Canada had banned news content from Facebook and Instagram.

In fact, parent company Meta pulled news from its platforms in protest at Canadian legislating that compels digital platforms to pay journalism organizations for their content.

- 'It could happen here too' -

Amarnath Amarasingam, an assistant professor at Queen's University studying online communities, said given the overlap between the US and Canadian media environments, Canadians can be impacted by American influencer content.

"It is certainly having an impact on broader culture war topics, such as immigration, gender fluidity, race, and so on," he said.

Prominent figures on the US right have been poking at Canada for years.

Former Fox News host and leading podcaster Tucker Carlson has long claimed the country needs "saving."

Stephanie Carvin, an associate professor of international relations at Carleton University in Ottawa, said there has also been misleading viral left-wing content about Canada, idealizing the country as a progressive haven while misrepresenting statistics on gun violence.

Canada is recognizable for American audiences, and so can be presented as a cautionary tale for how certain policies may impact lives south of the border, Carvin said.

For the right, that can include warnings about how higher taxes to fund a public health care system or social welfare programs can plunge society into decline.

Carvin described that framing as "it could happen here too."

"That's kind of why (Canada) is such a useful tool for a lot of these far-right influencers."

- The Trump effect -

But in an election campaign dominated by anger over Trump's trade war and annexation threats and a rise in Canadian patriotism, conservative voices from the United States don't ring as loud.

University of Ottawa assistant professor of politics, communication and technology, Elizabeth Dubois, said in the run-up to the vote, the Conservative Party made an effort to connect with right-leaning Canadian influencers who have ties to the American online right.

"It's important to think about that when trying to assess the impacts of some of those American influencers," Dubois said.