Recent years have seen growing recognition that foreign states exploit social and political crises in Western democracies to advance influence operations and exacerbate domestic polarization. A high-profile event such as the assassination of Charlie Kirk may have provided a key opportunity for state-affiliated outlets to produce and spread disinformation campaigns.

• Canada post strike, tied for the most talked about story of the year

• Canadians place little trust in celebrity and well-known political influencer endorsements

• Concern about US foreign influence jumps 7%

• Persistent misinformation in the Canadian information ecosystem

• The US Election was closely followed and discussed in Canada.

• Canadians think the Trump presidency will be terrible for Canada.

• Huge spike in Canadians attributing foreign influence to India.

• Widespread awareness of calls for Trudeau to step down.

• TikTok increasingly dominates news engagement.

• Elected officials lose trust. 

• Podcasts playing an increasingly important role in Canada, particularly for the politically interested.

• CBC surges in popularity, BlogTO enters the Top 5 and appetite for local news increases.

Key findings:

• Canadians want the government to get involved in the fight against bots

• The ecosystem has become slightly more polarized

• Engagement with misinformation and concern about fake content increases

• Canadians care equally about US news and politics

• More than one third of Canadians believe that the United States covertly influences Canadian politics

• Significant increase of attention paid to news and politics

• One third of Canadians report using print for news weekly

• Mounting awareness of and concern over foreign influence (FI)

• Lower appetite for news and politics in June

• Top Canadian news outlets are moderate and have broad appeal

• Small right-wing outlets punch above their weight on social media

• Ecosystem influence is highly concentrated in a small number of voices

• Canadians have extremely low trust in information providers

• Misinformation-producing websites receive significant attention

• Conservative voices dominate Canadian social media conversations