Sometimes the biggest political stories don’t happen in Washington — they happen just across the border.

On this episode of Breaking Battlegrounds, host Sam Stone sits down with Canadian journalist Elie Cantin‑Nantel for a fascinating conversation about Canada’s political landscape, media influence, and whether comments from Donald Trump may have shifted the outcome of a major Canadian election. From pandemic lockdowns to political momentum and media narratives, the discussion reveals how quickly political fortunes can change — and why what happens in Canada may matter more to Americans than many realize.

An Accidental Start During Lockdowns

Cantin-Nantel’s path into journalism wasn’t planned — it was born out of the pandemic. During Canada’s strict COVID lockdowns, he found himself stuck at home with time to spare. What started as a simple podcast recorded in his living room quickly evolved into interviews with politicians and candidates. That early initiative paid off. His podcast eventually landed him a role working on Parliament Hill, giving him a front-row seat to Canadian politics.

Soon after, he transitioned into political media, joining True North — just in time for one of the biggest political events in recent Canadian history: the 2022 trucker convoy protests. Covering that story launched his career and ignited a passion for political reporting that continues today.

Did Trump Shift Canada’s Election?

The conversation then turned to a controversial question: did comments from Trump impact Canada’s election? According to Cantin-Nantel, the answer may be yes.

He explained that Canada’s media ecosystem — particularly the government-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation — focuses heavily on Trump coverage. As a result, Canadian voters are frequently exposed to anti-Trump narratives. When Trump made comments about tariffs and referred to Canada as a potential “51st state,” Cantin-Nantel says the reaction was swift — particularly among older voters.

A Generational Divide

Cantin-Nantel described the election as a generational split:

  • Younger voters leaned conservative

  • Older voters shifted left

  • Higher voter turnout among older Canadians ultimately swung the election

Before the controversy, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre reportedly held a significant lead. Many in the business community expected a conservative victory. But after the Trump-related controversy, momentum shifted dramatically.

Media Influence and Political Narratives

Cantin-Nantel also pointed to media coverage as a key factor, describing what he saw as a narrative shift that reshaped public perception. Despite economic challenges and policy concerns, voters were persuaded that the current leadership represented stability. That shift ultimately helped elevate Mark Carney, a former central banker and self-described globalist, into leadership.

A Political Lesson Beyond Canada

The conversation highlights a broader lesson: media narratives, generational divides, and international political figures can dramatically reshape elections — even across borders. For American audiences, it’s a reminder that political ripple effects don’t stop at national boundaries. And for Cantin-Nantel, it’s just another chapter in a career that began unexpectedly — and quickly turned into a front-row seat to history.

Transcript

Sam Stone: Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host Sam Stone. As always, we’re jumping right into it with our first guest up today, Elie Cantin-Nantel. He is a bilingual, multi-skilled journalist, columnist, commentator, and content creator based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. He’s worked for the Hubb True North post-millennial and is a political staffer on Parliament Hill. I definitely am going to want to touch on that one a little bit, Elie.

So thank you so much for joining us on this program folks follow him on X @elie_mcn and Elie tell us a little bit. How’d you get in first? How’d you get into doing the work you do? How’d you get into this Journalist space?

Elie Cantin-Nantel: Sure so it was completely accidental. You know, I went to school thinking I would go work as a lawyer and then COVID hit and I had nothing to do as some of your listeners may be aware or may remember Canada locked down probably harder than any blue state in the United States. Like we were completely, completely locked down. So I had absolutely nothing to do for quite a long time and I was bored. So I decided to start a podcast in my living room.

And a lot of our politicians had nothing to do because they were too were kind of locked down and parliament was closed. so a bunch of people suddenly had a bunch of free time. So I decided to start a podcast and I began interviewing some politicians. We had our equivalent to a Republican primary at the time. So I began interviewing some of the candidates and then I started interviewing some of members of parliament. And that’s really when I got started. Now that particular little podcast landed me a job on Parliament Hill working for a member of Parliament, which is our equivalent to a congressman or a congresswoman.

And I did that for a bit. And then I decided to go back into political media while I was starting university. And so I started working for True North, which is basically the Canadian equivalent of the Daily Wire. literally two months after, sorry, not two months, two weeks after that stint began, I was living in Ottawa, our capital, the trucker convoy rolled in and this was in 2022 and the truckers that were sick of the lockdowns rolled in.

So that was my first assignment. Right away I was covering what is arguably the biggest story in Canada of the decade or maybe the century. So I got really into it. I got a lot of engagement out of that and I kind of discovered a passion for it and I’ve been continuing doing it ever since.

Sam Stone: So one of the One of the things I think that maybe we haven’t talked about much in this country for a lot of reasons or at least not on the right I think on the left they they probably don’t want to give Donald Trump this much credit But how much did he hurt Pierre Poilievre in that election? You just referred to because it seemed like Poilievre had a lot of momentum Heading in there and then Trump started making some comments about Canada... I’m a Trump supporter, but they might’ve been a bit ill-advised. And it seemed to really affect that race.

**Elie Cantin-Nantel: **Yes. So Canada is very, very sensitive to Trump. We have a media ecosystem. We have a public broadcaster that is basically take PBS, but PBS is like the biggest broadcaster in the country in Canada. It’s called the CBC and it’s basically to the left of MSNBC. And that’s what most Canadians watch every night. And they obsess with Trump. I was actually down in Arizona at America Fest in December, and I was showing some of the people like this is what the website looks like right now.

And the top eight stories were all about Trump and not about Canada. So Canadians are bombarded with anti-Trump media 24 seven. And what happened in the last election is the older folks, the baby boomers, especially who watch cable TV, who consume this type of content, they became to get very worried about the comments of 51st state, the tariffs. These are people who are wealthier. They have assets.

And they basically, it was a generational thing where all the baby boomers voted to the left and all the young people voted to the right. But because young people don’t vote as much as older people, the boomers were able to swing the election. So yes, Pierre Poilievre had a very large double digit lead over the liberals prior to the tariff comments. It was everybody just thought he was going to win the business world that just before the election and a bit after the election, I worked for a.

I was kind of doing communications consulting on top of some media work and we had a lot of clients coming in wanting to get, you know, I was helping them tailor their message for a conservative government. That was the whole business world taught, conservatives are going to win. And then everything changed. I do think Pierre could have done a few things to maybe reduce the damage. Like he just went on Joe Rogan. I thought he should have done that a year ago. I thought he should have done these podcasts a year ago, but yeah.

This particular situation caused Canadians, I would say, and I don’t blame Trump 100%. I also blame our media. There was kind of a great gaslighting operation that was triggered by the comments. And Canadians were basically gaslighting to re-electing the government that had done, you know, great damage to the economy, to public safety, to the trust system, immigration. The party, the Liberal Party, had created all these problems in Canada, including the trade problems.

Was suddenly seen as the savior to fix all these problems. They got Mark Carney, who had three passports, who was previously calling himself a European. He called himself proudly a globalist and an elitist to become our prime minister. And things have not gotten better, but Canadians are being sold at this idea that things are getting better.

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