Foreign Interference

Foreign interference isn't hypothetical anymore. It's happening in real time, in Canadian elections, on platforms your neighbours are using. And the question isn't whether it's real — it's whether anyone even notices.

This week on Craft Politics: Janice Stein returns, joined by Farhan Ladani, former PMO advisor and expert on international engagement, to answer what foreign interference actually is, how to spot it, and why the Chinese government just got caught running a WeChat campaign targeting Mark Carney.

What we got into:

• The three-part test. Farhan breaks down what counts as foreign interference: it has to relate to Canada, it has to be harmful, and it has to be clandestine, deceptive, or threatening. That third one is the hardest — because by design, you're not supposed to find out about it.
• Why China cares about Carney. Canadian officials just identified a Chinese-backed information operation on WeChat amplifying narratives about Mark Carney's credentials. Janice explains why China has taken a hard look at both parties and decided one is far less open to them than the other.
• The chaos play. Russia doesn't care who wins. China does. That's the tell. Russian interference is designed to undermine confidence that democracy works at all. Chinese interference tends to skew toward one candidate or against another. Both are happening right now.
• The nomination mess. Andrew flags the real weakness in the Canadian system — not the general election, but the candidate selection process. You can sign up hundreds of members, pack a room, and win a nomination. That's where foreign interests have the most leverage, and it's almost invisible to voters.
• Does it even work? The question nobody can answer: how many voters actually changed their minds because of a WeChat post or a coordinated X campaign? Janice wants pollsters to do before-and-after studies. Without that, we're just guessing at impact.
• The broken telephone game. Farhan's analogy — we're all playing broken telephone online, and foreign actors are just the kid who wants to say the word "poo" to ruin the game. Except it's not a game, and the stakes are democratic legitimacy.

Also discussed: whether Trump calling for Canada to become the 51st state counts as foreign interference, Obama's "back of the queue" moment before Brexit, why Canada's SITE committee might be rebuilding trust just by telling voters what's happening, and the uncomfortable truth that we interfere in other countries' politics all the time — we just call it democracy promotion.

Janice Stein is Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto.
Farhan Ladani is a former senior advisor in the Prime Minister's Office and international engagement expert.

00:00 Welcome and door knocking in Calgary — The real voter gut check
01:07 Beer of the week — Ostro Pilsner collaboration
01:57 Issue scan — Canada, US, and UK news roundup
02:18 Preston Manning's warning — Western separatism and the Carney threat
05:08 30 percent of Albertans want separation — The floor, not the ceiling
06:52 The separatist advantage — Why the emotional argument always wins
10:02 US market chaos — Trump's tariffs and the coming recession
11:00 The tariff debate — When conservatives defend protectionism
14:50 UK tariff response — Brexit derangement syndrome lives on
19:17 Introducing Janice Stein and Farhan Ladani — Foreign interference deep dive begins
21:18 Defining foreign interference — Three essential elements
24:07 The WeChat campaign — China targets Mark Carney and Chinese-Canadian voters
24:38 Why China cares — The Conservative versus Liberal calculation
26:58 Chaos as strategy — The real goal of foreign interference
29:49 The generational divide — Young men, distrust, and far-right voting patterns
34:46 Russian versus Chinese tactics — Different approaches, same goal
35:57 Does it actually work? — The impossible question of measuring impact
39:07 The nomination vulnerability — Canada's weakest link in election security
44:15 Trump and the 51st state — Is overt interference still interference?
45:03 Obama's Brexit intervention — The back of the queue moment
47:21 The broken telephone game — Why human behavior makes interference inevitable
50:36 Western democracy promotion — Our own foreign interference hypocrisy
53:11 Moldova election monitoring — Where's the line between support and interference?
54:50 The solution nobody wants — Stop consuming social media
56:10 Tasting notes — Ostro Pilsner review and wrap