Google searches for ‘move to Canada’ spike after Trump-Biden presidential debate
The fractious first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden on Tuesday evening led to a spike in searches about how US residents could move to Canada, according to Google.
The online queries, which included “move to Canada” and “how to apply for Canadian citizenship”, jumped dramatically during and after the polarised 90-minute debate in Ohio.
The search for “how to apply for Canadian citizenship” peaked roughly an hour into the debate and was particularly popular among internet users in Massachusetts.
The states of Washington, Michigan, Illinois and Ohio also recorded high volumes of the same query on Tuesday evening.
The debate between the two septuagenarians was widely criticised for descending into chaos, with both men speaking over one another and trading insults.
As a result, moderator Chris Wallace, an anchor at Fox News, came under fire for not having a firmer grip on proceedings.
With just five weeks to go until the November election, Mr Biden denounced the incumbent president as a “liar” and criticised his handling of coronavirus, while Mr Trump launched a familiar attack on the Democratic nominee’s son, Hunter, for his overseas business interests.
The evening was also clouded by disinformation, with the current president falsely claiming that his campaign rallies did not present health risks during the pandemic.
Commentating on the debate, Christopher Devine, an expert on presidential campaigns at the University of Dayton in Ohio, said: “Debates usually have very little influence on how people vote. It's even more difficult to see how this one could persuade voters one way or the other, since it gave us so little opportunity to learn about the candidates and their plans.”
Several polls suggest that the American public deemed Mr Biden’s performance to be better than Mr Trump’s, including one by CBS, which found that 48 per cent of voters thought the former vice president had won the debate, compared with 41 per cent who believed Mr Trump had edged it.
Read more
Presidential debate: Biden’s team selling ‘Will you shut up, man’ t-shirts after retort to Trump
