Rolling towards Radicalization : Right-Wing Populist Identification on Social Media During the 2022 Canadian Truckers’ Convoy

The scope of protests and political demonstrations have expanded beyond the physical environment, and are accessible through social media with live-streams, donation apps and comments. Social media facilitates remote participants to engage with those directly involved and on-site. This paper analyzes the case study of the 2022 Truckers’ convoy in Canada, and the effects of exposure to right-wing populist protest on political opinion. Social media was incorporated as a protest technique used throughout the Convoy occupation, used to amass widespread followings and online support (Zaiontz 2024). To investigate Convoy populism, I will use two large scale public opinion surveys of both Canadians and Albertans. In addition to survey data, content and keyword dictionary analysis are used to supplement the statistical models. Evidence is presented for the persuasive nature of social media Convoy discourses, where the findings suggest increased right-wing populist opinions among individuals on social media, with significant interaction effects in 2022.