Site MenuVideo featuring social media influencers – CEO Appearance: Supplementary Estimates (B) 2019-20
Fact Sheet
Subject: Video featuring social media influencers
Key Message
- One of the key objectives of the pre-election voter information campaign was to reduce the registration gap for electors aged 18–24.
- In 2015, 72 percent of electors in that age group were on the preliminary lists of electors, compared to nearly 93 percent of all eligible electors.
- This means that a significant number of young electors did not receive a voter information card providing them with the same basic voting information provided to other electors.
- One of the ways that the agency attempted to address this issue was through the use of social media influencers which is known to be an effective promotional tactic to reach youth.
- The firm hired to produce the video did not perform the level of vetting EC would have expected. Ultimately, the initiative was cancelled.
- After the initiative was cancelled, we have been able to recover over $200,000 of the project’s costs bringing the net cost to approximately $430,000.
- This is an unfortunate incident and one that should have been detected prior to incurring these expenses.
Facts
As an independent, non-partisan agent of Parliament, Elections Canada’s mandate includes making sure all eligible electors have the information they need to register and vote. As such, we conduct Voter Information Campaigns before and during general federal elections to provide Canadians with all the information they need on when, where and ways to register and vote in a general election.
The campaign for the 43rd general election was designed to align with the first ever pre-election period that started on June 30, 2019 and lasted until election day. The pre-election phase of the campaign, which ended once the election was called, was delivered through digital platforms and focused on ways to participate in the federal election including working an election and registering to vote.
One of the key objectives of the pre-election was to reduce the registration gap for electors aged 18–24. In 2015, 72 percent of electors in that age group were on the preliminary lists of electors, compared to 92.7 percent of all eligible electors (overall coverage). This means that a significant number of young electors did not receive a voter information card providing them with the same basic voting information provided to other electors.
One of the ways that the agency attempted to address this issue was through the use of social media influencers. This had been known to be an effective promotional tactic to reach youth and has been used in many other Canadian jurisdictions by election management bodies.
In February 2019, the plan to produce a video featuring 13 Canadian social media influencers as part of the pre-election campaign was presented to the Advisory Committee of Political Parties.
As social media influencers were being considered for use in the video, regular vetting was performed to rule out those who were not appropriate based on their past activities, including evidence of partisan statements or activities. After some criticism related to the initiative, the agency performed a final vetting process. This final vetting revealed that some past activities of influencers that were not captured previously, could be perceived as partisan. The video therefore posed an unacceptable risk to the agency’s core pillars of non-partisanship and neutrality, and the Chief Electoral Officer decided to remove it from the pre-election campaign.
The names of the participating influencers were made public on June 20, 2019: Ashley Callingbull, Andre De Grasse, Mitch Hughes, Katherine Levac, Elle Mills, Maripier Morin, Alex Nevski, Penny Oleksiak, Max Parrot, Thang Phung, Lilly Singh and Maayan Ziv.
After the initiative was cancelled, Elections Canada was able to recover over $200,000 of the project’s initial costs bringing the net cost to approximately $430,000 ($328,526 for influencer fees / $102,966 for production costs).
Refer to
– MPQ–122
Written Question Q-122
Q-122 — Mr. Chong (Wellington—Halton Hills) — With regard to social media “influencers” who have been selected to be paid by Elections Canada in relation to the 2019 election: (a) who are all of the “influencers”; (b) what are the details of each “influencer”, including platforms and “handles”; (c) why was each “influencer” chosen by Elections Canada; and (d) how much remuneration has Elections Canada agreed to pay each “influencer”, broken down by “influencer”?
Response:
As an independent, non-partisan agent of Parliament, Elections Canada’s mandate includes making sure all eligible electors have the information they need to register and vote. As such, we conduct Voter Information Campaigns to provide Canadians with all the information they need on when, where and ways to register and vote in a general election.
The Voter Information Campaign primarily targets the general population, as well as groups who face higher-than-average barriers to participating in elections: youth, new Canadian citizens, Indigenous and electors with disabilities.
The Campaign is complemented by the Community Relations Officer Program, the purpose of which is to increase awareness during the election period of when, where and ways to register and vote among target groups of electors who historically face barriers to the registration and voting process. These groups include Indigenous, youth, homeless electors, electors with disabilities, senior electors living in long-term care facilities, electors who are part of official language minority and ethno-cultural groups.
For the first time in 2019, Elections Canada conducted a pre-election phase of the campaign, which ended once the election was called. The pre-writ campaign was delivered through digital platforms and focused on ways to participate in the federal election, including working an election and registering to vote.
While the objective was to reach all Canadian electors, some initiatives targeted specific segments of the voting population with particular needs and lower registration rates. Influencer campaigns are an effective way to reach younger and niche audiences and have been well-received when used in other electoral jurisdictions, including Canadian provinces and other countries.
Elections Canada decided to include a video featuring social media influencers in its pre-election campaign to raise awareness about the benefits of registration ahead of the writ period. Precautions were taken to mitigate risks associated to this type of initiative and ensure non-partisanship. The agency presented an overview of its planned voter outreach initiatives at its February 2019 meeting with the Advisory Committee of Political Parties and no concerns were raised.
As announced in Elections Canada’s June 20, 2019 news release, the launch of the pre-election Voter Information Campaign did not include the planned 60-second video featuring 13 Canadian influencers.
Final vetting of the 13 proposed influencers revealed some past activities that could be perceived as partisan. The Chief Electoral Officer therefore cancelled the video because the potential perception of partisanship would be an unacceptable threat to Elections Canada’s neutrality.
Selection criteria for influencers included: their eligibility to vote (Canadian citizens 18 years or older); their non-partisan status; their social media reach; and their availability.
The names of the participating influencers were made public on June 20, 2019. They can be found below with information about their social media platforms and handles.
In response to part (d), negotiations and contracts with influencers were undertaken through a third party. Further to subsection 20(1) of the Access to Information Act trade secrets, confidential financial and commercial information of a third party cannot be revealed.
After the initiative was cancelled, Elections Canada was able to recover over $200,000 of the project’s initial costs due to the fact that Elections Canada’s Agency of Record waived its fees, and through other cost measures, bringing the net cost to approximately $430,000.
| Influencer Name | Influencer Platform and Handle Information |
|---|---|
| Ashley Callingbull | |
| Andre De Grasse | |
| Mitch Hughes | |
| Katherine Levac | |
| Elle Mills | |
| Maripier Morin | |
| Alex Nevsky | |
| Penny Oleksiak | |
| Nicolas Ouellet | |
| Max Parrot | |
| Thanh Phung | |
| Lilly Singh | |
| Maayan Ziv |