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Graphic Truth: US trade deficit with Canada & Mexico
The US trade deficit in goods with Canada and Mexico reached an all-time high in 2023 of over $220 billion — and despite what you may hear from certain former US presidents, that’s a good thing. Yes, more money than ever is leaving the US and going to the neighbors. And in exchange, American consumers get more stuff from their neighbors than ever before and for better prices than they can find at home.
Graphic Truth: Are migrants crossing the US-Canada border?
Immigration has been a polarizing political topic in the US since, well, forever. This is particularly true during election years. A recent Gallup poll found that Americans are most likely to cite immigration as the most important problem facing the US, which hasn’t been the case since 2019.
But defining the nature of the “problem” largely depends on who you ask. Republican presidential candidates, for example, have recently contended that not enough attention is being paid to the northern border — and some have gone as far to suggest that a wall could be necessary. While encounters at the US-Canada border have increased exponentially in recent years, they are still far below the record-setting numbers recently seen at the US-Mexico border. But it’s a sign that migrants with the means to fly into Canada increasingly see it as a viable route for entering the US. Much like the trek from Latin America to the US, this approach has proven to have deadly consequences at times — people have gotten lost and frozen to death.
Are lawmakers in Washington focusing enough on the US-Canada border when they discuss immigration? And are they approaching the issue in a substantive way, or just exploiting xenophobic sentiments for cheap political points? These questions will continue to loom large over the 2024 election.
Graphic Truth: Diversity in US and Canada legislatures
Legislatures in both the US and Canada are increasingly more diverse.
The 118th Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse in US history, with 133 lawmakers – about 25% – who identify as Black, Hispanic, Asian American, American Indian, Alaska Native, or multiracial.
In Canada, the House of Commons is also at its most diverse, and it elected its first Black speaker, Greg Fergus, in 2023.
Both chambers, however, still have a way to go to fully reflect the diversity of their respective populations. In the US, 75% of voting members in Congress are white, compared to their 59% share of the population. In Canada, where 20% of the population are immigrants, the number of immigrants elected to the House has slightly decreased since 2015, from 46 to 44 legislators.Graphic Truth: Why are American elections so long?
Former President Donald Trump was the first major candidate to launch his campaign for the 2024 presidential election cycle – on Nov. 15, 2022, roughly two years before Election Day. The US puts no limits on the length of campaigns, which leaves the door open for massive amounts of campaign spending and has the potential to leave voters exhausted by the time they head to the polls.
Many other countries have laws restricting how long candidates can campaign. In Japan, campaigns do not officially start until 12 days before the election. The longest election campaign ever in Canada lasted 78 days in 2015. The Great White North now limits campaigns to 50 days at most.
Should the US follow their lead? Do American voters really need more than a year of campaigning to make up their minds about who will be president for the next four years?
Graphic Truth: Trade across the pond
The UK has struggled to rebuild its trade relationships with partners across the pond post-Brexit. Since leaving the EU in 2020, new trade agreements with Canada or the US have stalled, forcing it to accept many of the same terms it had under the EU.
For Canada and the UK, the terms of their EU agreement expired at the end of 2023, leaving them in uncharted territory. Trade talks broke down over disagreements on cheese, beef, and the automotive industry. The two retreated to the EU terms after negotiators walked away from the table, but Canada still slapped a 245% tariff on British cheese, and the UK refused to budge on restricting hormones in beef, essentially barring both industries from each other's markets.
The UK has been striving and failing to secure a free trade agreement with the US. Last week, the UK’s business secretary blamed Washington’s reluctance to sign a free trade agreement for his country’s failure to hit post-Brexit trade targets. This was telling: Being free to forge its own free trade agreements was a major argument for Brexit. But the US is prioritizing specific deals in areas like semiconductors and critical minerals, and after negotiations fell apart with the UK in December, the Biden administration said it would not revisit the topic until after the 2024 elections.Graphic Truth: Where are US forces in the Middle East?
Three US service members were recently killed in Jordan by a drone attack launched by an Iran-backed militia. But why were they there, and where else does the US have troops in the region?
The three slain soldiers were working near the Syrian border to support Operation Inherent Resolve, which monitors the Islamic State group. But tens of thousands of US military personnel are currently deployed across the Middle East -- a region Washington has maintained a constant presence in since 9/11 – for a variety of reasons, ranging from monitoring militant groups and training local forces to countering Iran's influence in the region.
In some cases, such as in Israel and Oman, the US military is active, but it's difficult to get exact troop numbers. Washington also moved to boost its assets in the region amid the Israel-Gaza war, particularly in terms of naval power in the Red Sea. Other than Syria, the US military has permission to be in every Middle Eastern country where its troops are present.
Graphic Truth: The generational divide over Israel in the US
The Israel-Hamas war has sparked heated debates and demonstrations across the US – particularly on college campuses – as the Palestinian death toll continues to rise. As many young people express pro-Palestinian sentiments in a country that has long supported Israel, pundits and commentators have blamed social media platforms like TikTok.
But what we’re seeing is also part of a long-term trend that points to a stark generational divide over the Arab-Israeli conflict. Polling from recent years shows that younger generations in the US have increasingly become more sympathetic toward Palestinians than Israel.
In 2017, Gallup polling found net sympathy toward Israelis versus Palestinians among millennials was at +25%. By March 2023, that had dropped to -2% among millennials. Comparatively, net sympathy for Israelis among older generations has held relatively steady and is much higher in general.
Similarly, a Pew Research Center poll from 2022 found only 41% of those aged 18-29 and 49% of those aged 30-49 had a favorable view of Israel, compared to 60% of those aged 50-64 and 69% of those aged 65 or older.
The generational divide is also evident among American Jews. A 2021 survey from the Jewish Electorate Institute, for example, found that younger US Jews were more likely than older Jews to agree with sharply critical statements about Israel. The survey showed that 43% of Jewish voters under 40 agreed that “Israel's treatment of Palestinians is similar to racism in the US," compared to 32% of Jewish voters between 40-64 and 27% of those older than 64.
Generational disagreement continues today. A recent Gallup poll found only 30% of Americans aged 18-34 approve of Israel’s military action in Gaza, compared to 50% of those aged 35-54 and 63% of those who are 55 and older.
Graphic Truth: Where does the US get its online news?
The site has a well-documented history of being a breeding ground for misinformation, which continues to be a topic of concern in Washington with the 2024 election on the horizon.
Pew found that half of US adults get their news from social media at least some of the time, while 30% regularly get their news from Facebook. Next up was YouTube, followed by Instagram, TikTok, and X, formerly known as Twitter. Like Facebook, all of these platforms have also faced issues with the spread of disinformation as well as rampant hate speech.