I would assume that they don't mean "local group discussing national politics", but "local group discussing local politics". Think city councils and mayors.

At least where I'm at, local politics is the only sane politics left. It helps that in my city we don't have a party system at the local level, so candidates have to run on their own platform instead of on party affiliation.

Fastest way to get information regarding street closures, city events, infrastructure upgrades and etc. At least in my city 80% of the people in the group sound reasonable, so it’s fun Saturday morning reads.

Most of the toxicity comes from larger political groups, and yeah, agreed they are absolutely trash.

I'm not Canadian (nor American), but I used a few back in the day when I had Facebook. It was actually not that bad when people used those groups for local politics only. When it becomes too partisan then it's unbearable, but moderators can squash that.

I think that requires the moderators to be willing to do so, both in the sense that they are inclined to strongly moderate the group, and in the sense that they aren’t themselves getting an emotional high out of the ragebait.