Our politicians …scratch that…. NO politician is perfect. Even when one emerges with what appears to be a squeaky clean record of glorious extracurricular activities and trusted sat-on boards, something pops up that just makes our noses scrunch and our brows furrow. It happens. For some, the smudge in their history is worse than others but we’ve witnessed quite a few, in the past couple of years, emerge from our own Canadian campaign trails. Let’s help a few of them re-live their embarrassment and take a look here:
Alex Johnstone
Most recently, NDP candidate Miss Johnstone was in the spotlight for admitting that she did not know what Auschwitz is. At first, she made a crude joke about a Facebook photo of a friend of hers standing next to a curved concrete support with it’s adjoining electrified fence and when she questioned about the comment, she indicated that she did not know what Auschwitz was.
Jerry Bance
You may have heard of this Conservative party member through the popular hashtag #Peegate which was inspired after footage surfaced of him urinating in a mug while on the job (he was formerly a service technician before becoming a Tory party member). For shame Mr. Bance.
Bloc Québécois
The Bloc Québécois has come under fire a couple times in this election – once for using a stock photo of a farm in the U.S. in an ad about preserving Canadian agriculture industry, and again for a blended ad video against the religious freedoms issue of the niqab in Canada and the political issue that comes with the building of oil pipelines. This ad was uploaded in an attempt to turn NDP supporters into Bloc Québécois voters. The both the video and the inaccurate photo in the agriculture ad have drawn criticism from audiences.
Cheryl Thomas
While she was technically dropped as a candidate after the deadline for withdraw, Victoria BC Liberal party member Cheryl Thomas has made several racist and bigoted remarks on her Facebook page in previous years that have recently surfaced.
There’s (unfortunately) plenty more where that came from. In his article, 7 social media embarrassments from the campaign trail, Steve Morales takes a look at some of the most notable cringe-worthy moments from this years’ elections.
We always advise to conduct yourself on social media as you would in any other public space. We all have to live in this world together: be respectful. Be kind. Be caring. Be knowledgeable of things before commenting on them.
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