Canada goes to the polls on April 28, and when its TV production community hits the voting booths, they’ll be doing so with a sense of renewed optimism. That’s all down to an unexpected source: Donald Trump.

A few months ago, Conservative party leader Pierre Poilievre was expecting a big majority win, maybe even a landslide, as favor turned against Justin Trudeau and his left-leaning Liberals. Poilievre had made clear he would enact wide-scale change at the CBC and target other cultural institutions that didn’t fit with his Trump-lite version of right-wing politics. Voters broadly seemed to like it.

Now, with less than two weeks until voting, it is the Liberals that appear set for a majority, thanks to a surge of patriotism born out of President Trump’s goading of the U.S.’s northern neighbor and his plans to turn it into the “51st state.” The...