Election Watch – Canada's Election Avoided Violence and Extremism, But the Threat Remains

Election Watch is a series of reports based on our ongoing monitoring of online narratives promoting extremism, violence, and polarization before and after the Canadian federal election.

This post was made in collaboration with Revontulet.

Canada’s federal election, which took place on April 28, was billed by many observers as “generational” for its uniquely high stakes. Voters were tasked with electing a government to respond to tariff and annexation threats from the US, and to address cost of living and housing crises that have left many Canadians anxious about the future.

The election results reflected the unusual circumstances, with the Liberals and Conservatives each winning over 40 per cent of the popular vote for the first time since 1930. Ultimately, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals won a minority government. Yet despite the urgency of the election and its polarized results, election day was for the most part free of the types of conspiracy theories, denialism, and violent rhetoric in mainstream online spaces that are increasingly common in democracies around the world.

This is not to say that these narratives have been entirely absent. Digital Public Square, in collaboration with Revontulet, has been monitoring online narratives promoting extremism, violence, and polarization throughout the election period. We have found no shortage of such narratives, which have ranged from secessionist support for becoming the 51st state of the US to conspiracies about Carney to rising Indophobia. Fake political content has also been abundant on social media, ranging from sensationalist articles about prominent political figures dying to imitation news sites promoting cryptocurrency scams.

Most—but not all—of these narratives appeared more prominently in far-right information spaces. For the most part, extreme and violent narratives did not infiltrate mainstream social media discussions.

Canadians should take the growing interest in these narratives seriously. Some suggest growing radicalization and conspiratorial thinking in small but vocal segments of the population. Others reflect an increasing sense of alienation, frustration, and powerlessness, particularly among young Canadians. Understanding and responding to the underlying grievances of Canadians who feel disillusioned with their prospects is fundamental to maintaining the health of our democracy.

Fortunately, mainstream discourse surrounding the election and on election day itself largely shied away from extremist and denialist conspiracies—something that Canadians should not take for granted. When polarization grows, the threat of real-life violence grows in parallel. We have seen this play out in other liberal democracies in recent years.

In 2024, the US Department of Homeland Security assessed that domestic extremists motivated by policy grievances posed the greatest threat to the safety of voters and poll workers. There were several violent incidents during that year’s presidential election, including multiple bomb threats to polling stations and a young Trump supporter in Florida who threatened pro-Democrat supporters with a machete. Four years earlier, the January 6 Capitol attack—which was spurred by election denialism—was connected to the deaths of seven people.

Violent incidents like these are not limited to the US. Following the UK’s 2024 general election, the country’s Electoral Commission found that online and offline harassment and abuse of electoral candidates and their families “put people off campaigning”. During the UK’s Brexit referendum campaign in 2016, a white supremacist murdered Labour MP Jo Cox.

In the Canadian election, Digital Public Square and Revontulet did not identify any violent confrontations at polling sites, which bodes well for the health of our democracy. Still, while the election process was successful, Canada is not immune to political violence. Two days before the election, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh revealed that the RCMP warned him that he faced a credible threat to his life in December 2023. At one advance polling station in Vaughan, Ontario, an Elections Canada employee was removed for allegedly trying to influence voters. Some Canadian politicians are even legitimizing and amplifying dangerous misinformation narratives themselves. The threat of electoral violence and extremism in Canada is real and growing.

To counter harmful misinformation and encourage young Canadians to reflect on our democracy, we built Canada Is Talking—a trivia and survey platform about voting and elections in Canada. After engaging with Canada Is Talking, 66 per cent of users reported that they were more likely to vote in the election, and 60 per cent said they were more likely to trust the results of the election. The success of this platform shows how consulting Canadians about their concerns with empathy can encourage openness to new information.

Ensuring that future elections are trusted and free of violent and extreme discourse requires continued investment in Canadian democracy. This includes engaging Canadians with empathy on the factors leading to their alienation and disillusionment, introducing online safety legislation, and building social cohesion between polarized communities.

Digital Public Square does not include links to or screenshots of content promoting extremism, violence, and polarization so that it is not amplified.