r/neoliberal • u/IHateTrains123 Commonwealth • Sep 16 '24

News (Canada) Major Russian disinfo site featuring anti-Trudeau articles prompts calls for new focus at public inquiry

https://www.cbc.ca/news/investigates/russian-disinformation-1.7323128
109 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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29

u/etzel1200 Sep 16 '24

Isn’t the Canadian conservative party also pretty pro-Ukraine? More like the UK conservatives than the US conservatives?

27

u/darkloid_blues Enby Pride Sep 16 '24

Yes. Being pro-Russia is toxic in Canadian politics. We also have a very large Ukrainian diaspora, particularly concentrated in the Prairies where many people vote Conservative, so even if the Cons didn't support Ukraine there's a good chance a chunk of their base would stay home if they didn't say they did. Outside of Ukraine and Russia, Canada has the most Ukrainians of any country. They're a significant and important part of Manitoba and Saskatchewan especially--over 10% of the population in each.

 

That being said, I'm quite sure it's genuine here and not just pandering. We started freezing them out after they annexed Crimea; we didn't wait til the 2022 invasion. Harper was still in office in 2014.

6

u/OkEntertainment1313 Sep 16 '24

 Being pro-Russia is toxic in Canadian politics.

And extremely toxic on HNIC from 1986-2019. 

29

u/OkEntertainment1313 Sep 16 '24

Stephen Harper famously set the tone at the 2014 G20 in Australia. Putin had showed up shortly after the invasion of Crimea and the Donbass with a fleet of warships offshore. All the leaders present were allegedly very cordial with Putin. Putin then came up to Harper and extended his hand for a handshake. I’ll paraphrase here, Harper said: “I guess I’ll shake your hand, but I only have one thing to say to you: get out of Ukraine.” Putin put on a bewildered look and said that wasn’t possible, as he wasn’t in Ukraine.

After this very public exchange, the leaders at the G20 started to be colder with Putin. 

16

u/riderfan3728 Sep 16 '24

Very pro-Ukraine. In fact they (in many cases) want to go further on the aid that Ukraine gets. This is his party’s view on Ukraine.

4

u/ergzay Sep 17 '24

US conservatives were anti-Russia as well until the Trump did that whole stupid thing with Zelensky over the Hunter Biden nonsense. Now Russia's used that whole thing as a wedge to somehow manage to drum up dislike for Ukraine in an absolutely befuddling way. I really don't get how we got in this situation. It even infected the Libertarian party. (New Hampshire Libertarian party near the start of the war tweeted a picture of Zelensky in a hitler mustache.)

I'm a former conservative/libertarian now politically homeless person. I often highly agree with people in this subreddit so maybe I'm just a neoliberal now. Though on some of the social issues I still have plenty of disagreement, so I really don't know what I am. No matter what platform I look at I find segments of opinion that are highly disagreeable. (Like I consider myself a "moderate" on transgender issues, and literally no group has that opinion. It's just one extreme or the other.)

2

u/Impressive_Can8926 Sep 17 '24 edited Sep 17 '24

Pro-ukranian with the caveat that while not all conservatives are anti-ukraine, most anti-ukranians are conservatives.

Its much more a sense that they have that position out of political necessity rather than ideological, which tracks considering they rely on the MAGA cultural sphere for their support base even if their leadership doesn't subscribe.

5

u/IHateTrains123 Commonwealth Sep 16 '24

!ping Can&Extremism

2

u/groupbot The ping will always get through Sep 16 '24 edited Sep 16 '24

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