Carol Baldwin
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Wakaw Recorder
It may surprise many people to know that there are a few Canadians who would welcome Canada becoming the 51st state of the U.S.A. While this is a small group, a poll by the Angus Reid Institute conducted in January found that about 10 percent support the idea of Canada joining the U.S. In contrast, a much more significant and less surprising finding from the poll is that a substantial 90 percent of Canadians oppose the idea. The fact that some Canadians even consider this as an option fuels anger in light of the newly ignited nationalism.
The impetus for the Angus Reid poll is, of course, U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated comments about Canada becoming the 51st state. It is a solution, he says, to Canada avoiding his steep tariffs on most goods. Becoming an American state or supporting some kind of economic union with the United States is the latest campaign for people feeling underserved by Canada’s political landscape, said Shachi Kurl, president of the Angus Reid Institute.
Kurl emphasizes that these supporters can originate from any region and have various political leanings. However, the Angus Reid data indicates that individuals who support the idea are more likely to reside in Alberta or Saskatchewan and are less likely to align with a major political party. Kurl also noted that the perceived economic benefits often motivate Canadians to favour the idea of joining the U.S.
Jim Stanford, an economist and director at a Vancouver-based think-tank, the Centre for Future Work, sees it as a common misconception that the United States’ higher GDP per capita means Americans are wealthier than Canadians. People then buy into the idea that Americans somehow live in a land of opportunity that is denied in Canada. While many like to try and compare the two countries, doing so is like comparing oranges to grapefruit. There are similar features, but there are so many differences that a direct comparison is impossible.
Some supporters of the idea have long embraced the possibility of secession from Canada, such as Peter Downing. Downing is a former RCMP officer who ran for the Christian Heritage Party (CHP) in the 2015 federal election. The CHP opposes abortion and claims that the scientific consensus on the effects of CO2 is false. They argue that children do better in homes with a mother and father and assert that taxpayer-funded childcare is not a suitable substitute. Additionally, they state that the “federal government MUST protect children from harmful ideologies being imposed on children such as misguided theories such as gender fluidity, unproven CO2 / climate change, economic socialism, etc.”
Following the October 2019 federal election, Downing founded the Wexit Alberta western separatist movement and pushed for a referendum on separation. Wexit rebranded as the Maverick Party and ran candidates in the 2021 federal election. Wexit Saskatchewan was established in March 2020, and in July 2020, the party announced that membership had voted to change its name to the Buffalo Party of Saskatchewan (BPSK) and describes itself as a “conservative, populist, and separatist” provincial political party. The party’s March 1st fundraiser, advertised as a “51st State Discussion Fundraiser” in Regina, received threats, and security had to be hired.
The protests and threats, however, are not stopping a small minority of Canadians from looking south and seeing opportunity and personal gain. Downing and others like him believe, ‘Everybody envies the power of the Americans, the freedom of the Americans, the accomplishments of the Americans.’ They believe their lives, their bank accounts, and their ‘happiness-meter’ would be better if they, and the rest of Canada with them, could become American, and social media has become one of the tools enlisted to spread the message.
A great amount of fearmongering rhetoric and disinformation flows across individuals’ social media news feeds each day, and it is incumbent on people to be critical thinkers before sharing information that is not backed by a credible source.
An article by the Open Minds Foundation, “The impact of social media on critical thinking,” states, “Social media can be a wonderful thing, but it can also be a tool used to spread misinformation and disinformation by bad actors. With studies showing that around 80 percent of young people, aged 18 to 24, receive all of their news from social media, it is not surprising that research by YouGov indicates that people who use social media as a news source do not perform as well on the Misinformation Susceptibility Test (MIST).” (https://www.openmindsfoundation.org/blog/the-impact-of-social-media-on-critical-thinking/)
In an article released on June 29, 2023, about the test on the University of Cambridge’s website, Prof Sander van der Linden, senior author of the MIST study and head of the Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab, declared that “Misinformation is one of the biggest challenges facing democracies in the digital age.”
“We are seeing how online falsehoods create polarised belief systems in major nations…To understand where and how best to fight misinformation, we need a unified way of measuring susceptibility to fake news. That is what our test provides,” said van der Linden. (https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/misinformation-susceptibility-test)
The first survey to use the new 20-point MIST test, developed by researchers using examples of real news from outlets such as Pew Research Center and Reuters and false headlines created by an early version of ChatGPT, found that, on average, adult US citizens overall correctly classified two-thirds (65%) of headlines they were shown as either real or fake. However, the polling found that younger adults are worse than older adults at identifying false headlines and that the more time people spent online recreationally, the less likely they were to be able to tell real news from misinformation. This runs counter to prevailing public attitudes regarding online misinformation spread, says researchers, that older, less digitally-savvy “boomers” are more likely to be taken in by fake news.
“When we needed a set of convincing but false headlines, we turned to GPT technology. The AI generated thousands of fake headlines in a matter of seconds. As researchers dedicated to fighting misinformation, it was eye-opening and alarming,” said Dr Rakoen Maertens, MIST lead author.
The quick two-minute quiz gives a good indication of how vulnerable a person is to being duped by the kind of fabricated news that floods online spaces. Researchers encourage the public to test themselves. It can be found at https://yourmist.streamlit.app.
Social media platforms such as X or Facebook use algorithms to determine the prioritized content in people’s social media feeds. Unfortunately, disinformation and fake news are likely to be more sensational, outrageous, or attention-grabbing, luring people to read them, hence the slang name, click-bait. They get amplified by people reading and sharing and drown out credible information and sources. But with social media being an everyday part of many people’s lives, how can one think critically and use it more effectively?
Use the SIFT method: S: Stop to check for accuracy before you hit share. I: Investigate the source. Is it a reputable news outlet or account? F: Find better coverage. Are multiple outlets sharing the same story? Where did this story originate from? T: Trace claims, quotes, and media to their original source.
