October 2024: Eh or Nay? Canadians Weigh In on the US Election

Executive Summary

This sixth edition of the Canadian Information Ecosystem Situation Reports covers the state of the information ecosystem in October 2024 as it relates to politics, media, and democracy, combining digital trace data from social media, monthly opinion tracking, and media monitoring.

The US election was closely followed and discussed in Canada, with Canadians frequently posting about it in September and October. Discussion focused on Harris' and Trump's stances on foreign policy and immigration, with generally highly negative views on Trump's policies and campaign; across 19,350 classified posts, content about Trump was 26% more negative in tone than content about Harris. Canadians largely expected a Trump presidency to be bad for Canada: 45% believed it would be 'Terrible' and only 4% thought it would be 'Great'. Two-thirds would have preferred Harris, while Conservative partisans were equally split between preferring Trump or Harris.

Concern about foreign influence from India spiked sharply, jumping 14 points (from 30% to 44%) this month, following the RCMP statement on India-sponsored violent criminal activity that Trudeau addressed in testimony at the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference. Of the 71% of Canadians who had heard about this, 56% think India is trying to influence Canadian politics and elections through covert, deceptive and sometimes threatening means. Awareness of domestic instability was also widespread: 81% of Canadians had heard about a group of Liberal MPs calling for Trudeau to resign as Party Leader.