FIRST READING: The Canadian electorate may be even more tuned-out than you think

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Of survey participants, 49 per cent got the question right, answering that elections decide the composition of Parliament, which then determines who the prime minister will be. But 51 per cent got it wrong, saying the prime minister is “directly elected” by voters.

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Although, this same survey showed excellent results on Canadians’ knowledge of royal prerogative. Ninety per cent of respondents got it right that the Governor General can refuse requests by a prime minister, including a request to call a snap election.

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A third of Canadians have ‘never heard’ of our deadliest terror attack

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Recent years have seen a notable ramping-up of violent rhetoric and actions from Canada-based pro-Khalistani extremists. That is, Sikh nationalists seeking the secession of a chunk of Indian territory to be transformed into a Sikh ethnostate known as Khalistan.

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This should be particularly relevant to Canadians, given that Khalistani extremists are responsible for Canada’s single worst act of mass murder, the 1985 Air India bombing. But as the Angus Reid Institute found in 2023, many Canadians have never even heard about it.

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In 1985, pro-Khalistani elements in B.C. placed a bomb on an Air India 747, killing 329 people, including 280 Canadians, when it exploded off the coast of Ireland.

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But according to Angus Reid Institute respondents, 28 per cent had “never heard of this until now” when provided with the details of the tragedy. This included clear majorities of Canadians under 34 (53 per cent for the men, 62 per cent for women).

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Nearly half of Canadians hadn’t heard about an alleged Indian assassination plot on Canadian soil

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Speaking of Khalistanis, in 2023 the pro-Khalistani leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot and killed in Surrey, B.C., in a targeted hit. And according to details released in a related U.S. investigation, the hit may have been ordered by an agent working for the Indian government.

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But as this was all playing out, a poll by Leger found that almost half of Canadians hadn’t heard of this. When asked if they knew about allegations that the “Indian government has interfered in Canada,” 47 per cent said they were “not aware.”

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In 2014, Canadians guessed that unemployment was as bad as in the Great Depression

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In 2014, Ipsos conducted a poll across 14 countries to gauge how much people knew about the demographics of their own country. While Canadians were pretty good at guessing their country’s life expectancy, it was a completely different story when it came to unemployment.

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IN OTHER NEWS

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That is an Alberta flag flying over the National Assembly in Quebec City, the result of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s visit this week to meet her newly installed Quebec counterpart Christine Fréchette. In a speech, Smith explained her province’s intense contempt for Quebec politician Steven Guilbeault, the onetime environment minister under then prime minister Justin Trudeau who actively sought to curtail Alberta oil development. “I as a premier should never come into Quebec and tell you what you should and shouldn’t develop for your industry, and I think no politician should come into Alberta and tell us the same thing,” she said.

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It’s been two weeks since a CTV report revealed a widespread criminal conspiracy that involved airport employees using unwitting Canadian air passengers as drug mules. Specifically, employees at Canadian airports were taking tags from legitimate luggage and slapping them on suitcases filled with drugs. In instances where the drug shipments are discovered by foreign customs agents, the innocent passenger with their name on the suitcase is then arrested. In committee testimony this week, here’s how Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said his office was dealing with the issue: “These are very intricate and delicate interconnected systems. We’re not going to do anything rash, but I can tell you that in federal transportation infrastructure, security is something that preoccupies me.”

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First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post’s own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here.

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