Brace yourselves, Canadians.
We are in for a tsunami of smear, a flood of falsehoods, an avalanche of ad hominem attacks, a landslide of lies, a hurricane of half-truths, and a tornado of trumped-up tales. Yes, it’s federal election season, and while it will be over on April 28, it’s going to get ugly, as people on all sides flood the zone in favour of one person or party or in opposition to someone else.
There are a few things you can do to protect yourself, however. First, don’t just accept everything you see or read on social media. You shouldn’t have to fact-check every single item you come across, but if you feel so inclined it’s easy to do: a simple query typed into the search engine of your choice will give you an answer.
This is a very handy tool of which to make use, and of course you don’t need to fact-check everything. If someone posts that Pierre Poilievre bathes every day in the tears of investment bankers, or Jagmeet Singh takes policy advice from a retired ferret-breeder, or that the Bloc Québécois has had a change of heart and is running candidates in every riding across the country, you can take it as read that it’s nonsense and keep on scrolling.
However, misinformation can be more insidious and far less obvious. Take something like a social media post that asks the simple, straightforward question “Is Mark Carney going to renounce his American passport?” Sounds legit, no? OMG, he wants to be prime minister but holds an American passport! That’s terrible!
Or how about a post that just asks matter-of-factly “If he becomes prime minister, will Mark Carney move back to Canada?” He doesn’t even live here? The traitor! He’s not getting my vote!
A quick online search will reveal that a) Carney does not have, and never has had, an American passport and b) he and his family have lived in the Ottawa neighbourhood of Rockcliffe since 2020. Unless you checked, however, you’d be forgiven for taking both statements at face value, and ratcheting up the outrage as you saw fit.
Also — and here I think I am speaking for hard-working journalists everywhere — please know the difference between an article and an opinion piece. Most journalists who are reporting on the news and writing articles about it are giving you the who, what, when, where, and why: no pontificating, no opinions, no “spin”, just who was where, and when, and what they said and did.
If that person said or did something truly shocking or egregious or offensive, and it is reported accurately (and in this day and age of everything being recorded by everyone, there will be plenty of evidence that they did say or do it), don’t start screaming at journalists for reporting it just because it paints your guy (or gal) in a bad light. Instead, perhaps ask yourself why you feel the need to lash out about it, and whether it should really be your gal (or guy) in the crosshairs for saying or doing it in the first place.
There’s a meme that goes around on social media every now and then, usually a picture of veteran newscaster Walter Cronkite with a caption to the effect of “Remember when people like him just reported the news?” Guess what? People still report the news! Lots of people, in lots of places, all the time! Sometimes that news will be flattering to the politician(s) you like, and sometimes it won’t be. It has always been thus.
The bottom line, folks, is that it’s going to be a very long five weeks here in Canada, and we all need to keep our wits about us. If you’re prepared to spend 30 seconds in the produce department figuring out which avocados are still good (as opposed to the ones that are 10 seconds away from becoming guacamole), be prepared to do a little work when reading about the people who want to run our country.
