Political Hell #4: System Integrity

On China, Canada's media is in danger of losing the plot – and taking our collective trust with it

By now you may have heard that, according to reports in both Global News and the Globe and Mail, China tried in both 2019 and 2021 to influence Canada’s elections. China’s “sophisticated strategy”, according to the Globe and Mail, whose reporters saw top-secret Canadian Security Intelligence Service documents, involved diplomats and others backing “the re-election of Justin Trudeau’s Liberals – but only to another minority government – and worked to defeat Conservative politicians considered to be unfriendly to Beijing.”

It’s a strong allegation, and one for which the prime minister has yet to find an answer that sufficiently refutes it. But as far as Jody Thomas, the National Security Advisor to the prime minister is concerned, both elections were “fair and legitimate, despite foreign interference attempts.” Still, there are those attempts – or the reports of attempts. And reports about the reports of attempts. And, most crucially, the opinions about the reports of the reports.

According to Abacus Data polling, only 37% of Canadians polled said they’re following the story pretty or very closely. It’s a small-ish but dedicated audience, and it’s not hard to see why. The story is compelling, scandalous. It might even be a super-sized, decades-long, conspiracy that goes all the way to the very top! At least, that’s what Canada’s opinion columnists are saying.

This is how a news story, filtered through conjecture in the opinion pages and social media, becomes something more dangerous – it becomes the basis for a corrosive assumption about our government and political system that lives on, even when the story fades from the headlines or a politician leaves office.