How do regional differences in fossil fuel dependence shape media coverage of climate change in Canada?
Presented at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA), Ottawa, June 2-4, 2026. This study examines how regional differences in fossil fuel dependence shape climate change coverage in Canadian media, using BERT-trained classifiers applied to 142,974 articles from 17 regional outlets over the 2005-2023 period.
Three regional regimes
Quebec papers frame climate action with the lowest cost framing in the country (25.9%) and the lowest share of science skepticism (4.8%). The Prairies (AB, SK, MB) sit at the opposite end, with the highest cost framing (46.5% in Saskatchewan, 41.9% in Alberta) and the highest skepticism (13.7% in SK, 13.1% in MB, 12.1% in AB).
Fossil fuel alignment
Provinces with hybrid energy economies (BC, ON, NB, NS, NL, YK) track the Prairies more closely than Quebec on cost framing and science skepticism. The pattern is stable across two decades and survives statistical tests (Kruskal-Wallis H = 3,857.7 on cost framing, p < 0.001).
Scroll Navigate between slides Click Interact with data Fullscreen for a better experience
Use arrow keys or click to navigate through the slides.
Code and data
All code, data, and methodology are open source.