Hostility on the federal campaign trail
Running for office in 2021 has meant replacing vandalized election signs, being pursued by men with cameras demanding comment on conspiracy theories, and trying to articulate campaign messaging over the shouts of an incensed crowd.
And those are just some of the off-line instances of toxicity documented during this federal election campaign from candidates across the political spectrum.
At a campaign stop in Ottawa on Monday, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh denounced “deplorable” misogyny and racism seen from some of the protesters who've crossed paths with campaigning politicians, while making a point of empathizing with people who may be feeling frustrated or isolated, or are struggling with their mental health as the pandemic has dragged on.
Ottawa Centre NDP candidate Angella MacEwen said she has noticed on doorsteps that “there some people who are really on edge.”
“Like, they're a little wound up, they're upset, they've had a really hard time. But when you stand there and you listen to them, they tell their story, they kind of unwind a bit.”
There's no doubt the pain of the pandemic and its associated impacts are part of what's driving disaffected Canadians to unleash ire, virtually or in the physical world, on candidates during this election campaign. But it's far from the only factor at play, and the resulting toxicity has consequences, that extend beyond those trying to campaign safely and effectively ahead of the Sept. 20 election.
“People simply are not participating,” said Sabreena Delhon, executive director of the Samara Centre for Democracy.
“The ugliness that manifests online and that can then translate into real life is numbing for some people. It can be intimidating. It can make them feel unsafe. And that's really — that's our loss. That's really hindering public participation in the democratic process.”
Samara and Edmonton-based tech company Areto Labs have deployed a machine-learning bot that uses AI to track tweets targeted at party leaders and incumbents in the 2021 campaign, for analysis on a seven-point “toxicity scale.”
The first “SAMbot” report, on the week of Aug. 15 to 22, found the Liberal party faced the most toxicity, followed by the Conservatives, the Green party, the Bloc Québécois and the New Democratic Party. Of the more than 356,600 tweets analyzed, 20 per cent were labelled toxic and seven per cent “severely toxic.”
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau received the highest proportion of toxic tweets, at 24 per cent of those he received, while female Liberal incumbents were found to be more than five times as likely to receive toxic tweets, compared to their male counterparts in the party (Trudeau excluded).
“I'm not quite sure about what is going on,” said Delhon, when asked for her take on what's fuelling the rage targeting politicians of various stripes during this campaign. “But in order to get a sense of how it can get better, we feel that measurement is key.”
The hope is also to increase public awareness about the problem, she said, and shape conversations about what the solutions could be.
Following what he described as “the ugly nature of protests” at Trudeau campaign events, Ottawa Centre Liberal candidate Yasir Naqvi re-shared an opinion piece he wrote in the Globe and Mail in January following the storming of the U.S. Capitol building, urging Canadians to “defend the truth and call out misinformation — before it's too late.”
The thing about misinformation, though — defined by Merriam-Webster as incorrect or misleading information — is that it's a standard component of election campaigns. Already, the Liberals, Conservatives and New Democrats have been accused of playing fast and loose with facts since the writ drop earlier this month.
The Grits had an edited video of Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole talking about private-sector involvement in health care labelled by Twitter as “manipulated media.” They have also tweeted about O'Toole's Conservatives not recognizing the reality of climate change, while the party's platform includes their plan to tackle climate change and says, “Canada must not ignore the reality of climate change.”
In the Conservative camp, Carleton incumbent Pierre Poilievre caught flak on Twitter for warning that the Liberals want to bring in a new tax on homes. What the party has proposed is an anti-flipping tax on residential properties bought and sold in less than a year, with exceptions for reasons such as employment. While the Liberals say they're not considering doing so, Poilievre noted that the idea of implementing capital gains taxation on the sale of a principal residence after a year was mused over in a party document in 2018.
The New Democrats' Singh, meanwhile, ruffled some feathers for tweeting that “Trudeau has profited off of student debt, to the tune of nearly $4 billion in interest payments,” and that he would immediately remove interest from federal student loans. The government has already suspended the accumulation of interest on Canada Student Loans until March 2023.
Singh said Monday that what the NDP proposes — the permanent removal of interest — is very different from a temporary freeze.
Naqvi said Monday he thinks, as politically leaders, “we should set ... perhaps a higher standard in how we dispense information and how we share facts.”