Legislators in UK, Canada and Australia Express Post-election Enthusiasm for Biden Administration on
Broader discussion of U.S. focuses on how the election and new administration will affect bilateral ties and trade
For the most part, lawmakers in these three nations were hesitant to mention the candidates directly before the election: Just 272 lawmakers in these three countries out of the 1,289 who tweeted during this period (or 21% of the total) made direct reference to either President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden. But among those legislators who did weigh in, those who tweeted content related to Trump tended to voice negative opinions of the American leader. Some of these critical tweets discussed Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic – 
In the week following that announcement, 678 legislators from these three countries tweeted about either Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. That is nearly six times the number of legislators who tweeted about them (119) in the entire month of September, and roughly double the number who tweeted about either set of candidates during that month. Among legislators across these countries who tweeted after the announcement, half or more (ranging from 50% to 59%) mentioned either Biden or Harris.
In contrast, fewer lawmakers (236 in total) mentioned either Donald Trump or Mike Pence in the post-election period – a sharp change from the preelection period, when mentions of the current president were much more common than those of his challenger. The share of active tweeters in each country who mentioned Trump or Pence in the week after the election ranged from 7% (in Canada) to 26% (in the UK).
Across these countries, the largest share of legislators (85%) who mentioned Biden and Harris were reacting to the outcome of the election by offering congratulations, acknowledgments or thoughts on their victory.
Congratulations
As was the case with Biden, Trump was most often mentioned in the context of lawmakers offering congratulations, acknowledgments or thoughts on the election. However, the overall sentiment of Trump mentions in this topic was much different from those mentioning Biden. Across all three countries, tweets that discussed the outcome of elections mentioned the Biden administration in a positive or neutral way, with very few such tweets expressing negative sentiments. By contrast, it was rare for these tweets to mention Trump or the outgoing administration in a positive light.
Can't describe how happy I am to see the back of Trump. Fascist sympathisers have not been too common in the White House in living memory, until he came along.
Well done America and congratulations to Joe Biden!
By contrast, fewer than 5% in each country expressed positive sentiment toward Trump. Of the 240 lawmakers who mentioned the incumbent president, just seven expressed a positive sentiment. There were no such references from Canadian lawmakers and just one from a lawmaker in Australia. Meanwhile, the share of tweeters expressing negative sentiment toward the outgoing administration ranged from a low of 53% in Australia to a high of 76% in the UK.
Members of major left-leaning parties in Canada (Liberal), Australia (Labor) and the UK (Labour) were around twice as likely to tweet about Biden and Harris relative to their conservative counterparts. However, in all countries, the vast majority of tweeters – regardless of political affiliation – conveyed positive sentiment toward the incoming president.
Prior to election, legislators abroad tweeted grievances about Trump, muted enthusiasm for a Biden administration
In the days immediately following the 2020 Republican National Convention and through the month of September, legislators in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom took to Twitter to comment on the two main candidates running in the U.S. presidential election. From Aug. 28 to Sept. 30, more engaged in conversation about the sitting U.S. president than about his opponent: 241 legislators tweeted about Donald Trump, and 119 tweeted about Joe Biden. However, explicit discussion of the two candidates was relatively uncommon. Across these three countries, only small shares of legislators who tweeted during this period mentioned Trump (12%-23%) or Biden (3%-13%) directly.
To the extent that they mentioned the candidates on Twitter, the tone that these legislators took before the general election varied based on which candidate was being discussed. Among the legislators who tweeted about Trump, 73% made negative references to the president. Roughly half (52%) sent out neutral tweets during the same period, and only 9% tweeted positive messages about Trump (these figures total more than 100% because some legislators posted multiple tweets containing different sentiments).
As recent 
A similar pattern appeared within the three individual countries in the study. More than half of the legislators who tweeted about Trump in each of these three countries shared negative content, while between 46% and 55% tweeted neutral content about the president. And while 23% of Australian legislators who tweeted about Trump wrote something positive before the election, only 9% in the UK and 2% in Canada did the same.
Legislators in each of the three countries voiced negative opinions on Twitter for different reasons, usually related to policy issues that affected their own country. In the UK, for instance, bilateral trade relations motivated legislator tweets. Many there decried Trump's tariffs on 
Legislators in all three nations voiced negative opinions of Trump based on his character or personality. In their preelection tweets, many brought up questions of Trump's integrity related to various news stories that broke in September, including concerns that he 
Beyond direct mentions of the two major candidates for president, discussion of the United States more broadly was much more common. From Aug. 28 to Sept. 30, 2020, 42% of lawmakers in Australia, Canada and the UK who tweeted did so at least once about the U.S. – either through direct mention of the name “United States” or some other variant such as “U.S.” or “America.” These mentions were similarly common among legislators in Canada (46% of legislators who tweeted) and the UK (42%), but less so for those in Australia (30%). However, mentions of the U.S. made up only a small fraction of all social media content from these lawmakers: approximately 1% of all tweets produced by all members of these parliaments in each country during this period.
Legislative tweeters who mentioned the U.S. were more likely to be members of left-leaning parties in their respective countries, such as the Australian Labor Party (40% tweeted at least once in the study period vs. 10% of members from the right-leaning Liberal Party), the Canadian Liberal Party (59% vs. 31% Conservative Party) and the British Labour Party (54% vs. 33% Conservative Party).
Around 25% of legislators in all three countries who mentioned the U.S. in a tweet talked about the upcoming American elections. This topic was most popular among British legislators, with 35% who referenced the U.S. also mentioning the November election. Legislators in other countries discussed the topic to a much lesser extent – 14% in Australia and 9% in Canada. Tweets about the U.S. election mentioned support or opposition for certain candidates, opinions on the first presidential debate or the implications of U.S. election results, among other topics.
Members from left-leaning parties more often tweeted about the upcoming U.S. election compared with their right-leaning counterparts. For example, 39% of Labour MPs in the UK shared election-related content while 26% of Conservative MPs did the same.
Approximately 14% of tweeting legislators in Australia, Canada and the UK who mentioned the U.S. also discussed Donald Trump outside of the scope of the election, ranging from 17% in the UK to 9% in Canada. As highlighted in the previous section of this report, most of these tweets were critical in nature.
We shouldn't look at Trump's attacks on democracy in the US and think "that couldn't happen here".
The Tories are simply following his lead.https://t.co/5A5whAyxiI
