Canada

There's also this strangely prevalent punk scene and a good group of progressive academics there too which makes this somewhat alarming to me.

I can’t say why Peterborough specifically, but it would not be surprising if small towns in general were being targeted for this sort of recruitment effort.

The bigots are easier to target in a smaller pool. They come right out, group up and make themselves known.

Also a lot of small town Canada is a cross section of people who are (a) mostly from a singular culture with little exposure to others and (b) see any prospect of change as a threat to their way of life. These are easy vulnerabilities to exploit, unfortunately.

I don’t really think there are more bigots in small town, they’re just so much more obvious about it. And the majority decent folk have to live here, so you really have to be careful about choosing your battles when you know you’re going to have to see these people all the time, and if you challenge them they will remember you, and go out of their way to make your life difficult.