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Why some Ontario voters are turning to AI chatbots for 2026 municipal elections
Some Ontario voters turn to AI for election info
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christopher Katsarov
Eric Apps had an inkling of who would get his vote in Toronto’s municipal election, but the lawyer wanted a second opinion before making his final decision.
In Parkdale-High Park, his usual safe choice in longtime councillor Gord Perks was taken away when the 63-year-old decided to retire. The race for the city’s west-end ward has ballooned to 10 candidates — none of whom Apps is familiar with.
He turned to a system he was familiar with: Claude, Anthropic's artificial intelligence chatbot. Apps asked the bot for the top five polling candidates in his ward and their policies on issues such as bike lanes, housing and property taxes.
"It laid them all out in a very easily digestible format," he said.
Apps is not the only one turning to AI for election information. During Quebec's provincial election earlier this month, an estimated 40 per cent of the province's voters turned to AI chatbots and received false and outdated information about the election, according to McGill University researchers. Many Quebec news outlets don't allow chatbots to access their websites, so their reports cannot be mined for users' queries.
Experts say this marks a troubling shift in the democratic process, where citizen engagement and human judgment is superseded by some algorithms that could be providing false information.
There were a few gaps in Apps' own search, he noted. The chatbot could not provide much information on candidates who weren’t as widely reported on by news outlets or who didn't have very active online presences. He acknowledged that some of the gaps could be related to the parameters of his questions.
“The blind spots are probably in the eyes of the beholders,” Apps said. “If you have your point of view going into it, then it probably is going to be giving back information that is not necessarily going to focus on opening your eyes.”
Alissa Centivany, an associate professor of Information and media studies at Western University, said artificial intelligence bots have replaced traditional search engines, such as Google, and reliable media platforms, such as news organizations' websites.
For some voters, chatbots have become their main method of seeking information.
For AI researchers like Centivany, it remains unclear what an AI chatbot’s "technical process" is as it scrapes the internet for information. Centivany notes that the quality of information AI chatbots can compile is often lower than she would hope for, especially in the context of political elections.
One concerning element, she said, is that the mishmash of information it gathers can include user-generated content from social media sites like Reddit. Centivany said researchers are starting to see evidence of how a bot will compile information based on what they think a user will want to hear, based on past queries, as opposed to objective facts.
“A lot of it is opinion, a lot of it is untrue, a lot of it is inflammatory,” she said. “And it’s being used as a source of information.”
As he asked Claude more questions about candidates in his ward, Apps said he was also keenly aware of its limitations, especially with the influx of content on social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram.
"You have to take your AI engine with a grain of salt," he said. "It gave me the basic information and then it puts it back to the viewer."
The accessibility of the AI platforms made political participation easier, Apps said. While he considers himself somewhat politically aware, he said the chatbot acted as an information "refresher."
"You ask it a question and it gives you an answer," he said. "It's not giving you glossy videos with clickbait-ish headlines."
Anthropic said Claude uses web search to find up-to-date information and shows its sourcing so users can "judge their credibility for themselves."
"Claude is trained to note when claims are disputed, when sources conflict, or when a source may be inaccurate or have an agenda," the company said in a statement to The Canadian Press.
Earlier this month, Anthropic announced new updates to its usage policies, which included a "refocusing" of their elections section and political content restrictions.
"We’ve further sharpened our section on elections, focusing it specifically on disallowing the use of Claude to deceive voters or disrupt elections (for instance, by spreading false information about candidates or how to vote, impersonating candidates or election officials, or trying to suppress turnout)," the company's news release read.
Alex Marland, a professor of Canadian politics and the Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership at Acadia University, said it makes sense that voters would turn to an accessible tool such as AI for information about candidates in elections.
Typically, people might vote for the political party they most align with, but candidates in Ontario municipal elections are not affiliated with a party.
“What ends up happening is you have to invest a lot more time to try to understand, 'What are my choices and what do these people stand for?'" Marland said.
It’s a positive sign that voters want to get engaged in municipal politics, Marland said, since Ontario’s last municipal election had record-low voter turnout. According to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, the average voter turnout in the 2022 was almost 33 per cent, compared to roughly 38 per cent in 2018.
But it’s up to users to be vigilant in fact-checking the information they’re receiving, Marland added.
“This is a piece of information that is going in with other pieces of information."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 24, 2026.
By Sadeen Mohsen | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Quebec premier announces $28 million for warming centres and emergency shelters
Quebec premier announces millions for homelessness
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
Quebec's new premier says the provincial government will spend $28 million in emergency funding to address homelessness.
Paul St-Pierre Plamondon announced the new funding in his first major announcement since he was sworn in as premier on Wednesday.
St-Pierre Plamondon says the money will go to warming centres and emergency shelters across Quebec.
The Montreal area is slated to get $18 million out of the total.
Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada joined the premier for the announcement.
She says she is thrilled the new provincial government has made homelessness its first order of business.
She noted how the city had come up with a homelessness strategy for the winter, but needed $20 million from the provincial government to implement its plan.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 23, 2026.
By Erika Morris | Copyright 2026, The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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Calgary flood survivor to testify in Canada’s first youth-led federal climate trial
The 15 plaintiffs say Canada’s fossil fuel policies threaten their constitutional rights.
Sadie Vipond was 7 when her grandmother woke her in the middle of the night, and they fled their home. Outside, Calgary was in the midst of its largest flood in more than a century. They went to a friend’s place on higher ground as surging waters cut short the school year. At the city’s zoo, water rose high enough for a hippo to swim out of its enclosure — a memory that stays with her 13 years later.
Next week, she will testify in Canada’s first federal youth-led climate trial — a lawsuit she joined at 13. She’s one of 15 young Canadian plaintiffs in La Rose v. His Majesty the King, which will run for four weeks in Vancouver.
The plaintiffs from seven provinces, the Northwest Territories and Yukon were all between the ages of 10 and 19 when the case began. They are arguing that Canada is putting young people’s health, safety and futures at risk by supporting fossil fuel development while repeatedly missing its emissions targets. They want the court to require the government to develop and carry out a climate recovery plan that protects their constitutional rights.
“This was a way to share my voice, to influence our governments without having the ability to vote,” Vipond said.
The case is reaching the trial stage after seven years of legal motions and appeals, including federal efforts to have it dismissed. Many plaintiffs were barely teenagers when they joined and have grown into adulthood waiting for their day in court.
Now, they have more to lose. Some have taken outdoor jobs, where staying inside to escape wildfire smoke can mean going unpaid. East Coast plaintiffs, who had never experienced wildfire smoke when the case began, now encounter it regularly, said Andrea Rodgers, deputy director of US strategy at Our Children’s Trust, which supports the case.
One plaintiff has since become a mother and will testify during the trial’s first week. “Now, it’s not just about protecting her rights and her future,” Rodgers said. “It’s about ensuring that her son can grow up and thrive in a healthy environment.”
A generation coming of age in a changing climate
Extreme heat and wildfire smoke have limited Vipond’s ability to bike to school and exercise outdoors. Now a third-year environmental sciences student at the University of British Columbia, she said her studies have helped her recognize changes around her — from increasingly dangerous snow conditions to pine beetles destroying an entire hillside.
“A lot of people think that climate change is like a long, slow evolution of changes,” Vipond said. “However, we’re really seeing it from year to year at this point.”
Vipond’s experience reflects a broader reality for young people coming of age as climate change dictates how they imagine and plan their lives. A study published in 2023 found that nearly two in five Canadians aged 16 to 25 said climate change made them hesitant to have children.
That concern also shows up in their politics. In July, a poll found that one in four respondents aged 18 to 34 ranked climate change and the environment among their top three issues, compared with 16 per cent of those older than 55.
The climate risks extend across their lives. At 1.5 C of warming, over half of children born in 2020 would face unprecedented lifetime heatwave exposure, compared with 16 per cent of those born in 1960, a global study projected in 2025.
Rodgers has spent 15 years representing young people in US climate cases, including Juliana v. United States. Its 21 young plaintiffs spent nearly a decade arguing that federal energy policies violated their constitutional rights. The case never reached trial after an appeals court ruled that judges lacked the power to order and oversee the climate recovery plan the plaintiffs sought. She hopes Canada will deliver what those young Americans were denied.
The Canadian trial will also test how international law informs that duty. In July 2025, the International Court of Justice affirmed that governments must protect the climate system to safeguard human rights. Rodgers said the Canadian court could use that advisory opinion to help justify an order requiring climate action, and set an example for courts in other countries.
“Canada really has a choice,” Rodgers said. “Do they want to follow in the path of the United States or forge their own path, one that protects the rights of their own children?”
Vipond joined the lawsuit out of fear for her own future. As she heads to court next week, she said she now feels responsible for speaking for other children too young to vote and generations yet to be born.
People have asked whether she and the other plaintiffs would receive money if they win. She tells them they are seeking accountability rather than a payout.
“Hope is really hard to hold on to sometimes,” Vipond said. “But we’re all fighting to keep it.”
Sonal Gupta / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada's National Observer.
Copyright 2026, Canada's National Observer. All rights reserved.
Sonal Gupta, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Canada's National Observer.
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