Thread by @ianjamesyoung70

In Richmond, BC, and Markham, Ontario, the Conservative vote plunged in Canada’s most Chinese electorates. Ousted Richmond MP Kenny Chiu had doors slammed in his face. He blames "disinformation" and "lies" abt his stances on HK and China scmp.com/news/china/dip… via @scmpnews

He suffered a hefty 8.4% prelim swing. Fellow Richmond Tory Alice Wong suffered worse: 11.9%. That dwarfed the BC and national trends

Across Canada, in Markham-Unionville, Cda's most Chinese electorate of all, the Tory MP suffered 7% swing, and the Liberals picked up a whopping 10.3%.
That defied Ontario trend that saw the Lib vote down 2.7% and the Tory vote up 2 points!

So the question has to be asked: did the Tories pay the price for their tough stance on China?

I get that there are no smoking guns in politics. But these swings, in this small handful of Chinese majority/near-majority electorates, look pretty extreme and abnormal

You can cut the China theory two ways: voters legitimately rejected the Tories tough-on-China platform, or voters were illegitimately swayed by disinfo (local and frn). Take your pick

But either way, I think the phenomenon, that Tories suffered particularly in heavily Chinese ridings, is real. Here is a thread that considers the same issue (I didn't see it before I filed, but it seems to come to same conclusion)

https://twitter.com/KLalh/status/1440480606459076617?s=20

And I think you have to be very careful about how these outcomes are framed: bottom line is that Cdns can vote how they like. It's totally valid if some rejected the Tory stance on China. But did disinformation swing it? If so, who was behind it? Those are valid questions, too