The answer was good, but just to clarify a touch more... The software inserts the space, not the French speaker. I teach in a university in France and repeatedly instructed students to stop typing that space until a few told me they literally can't unless they switch languages in Word.

The Grammaire Française recommends:

"Toujours un espace avant et après: le point-virgule, le point d'interrogation, le point d'exclamation et les deux points."

https://grammaire.reverso.net/les-espaces-et-la-ponctuation/

But for French Canadian variations the indication is just a "smaller" space.

If it had not been for these clues, I actually would not have noticed.