When Social Media Bites Back: Election Edition

As we gear up for the upcoming election, it’s no secret that social media has influenced this years’ campaigns more ways than one. It seems each time I scroll through my Facebook newsfeed, I deal with the collective ‘Stop Harper!’ screams of my youthful friends, while a Justin Trudeau advertisement curiously appears on my sidebar (are the Liberals conspiring to grab my vote?). But the most vivid and encouraging sight of the social media frenzy tells me which of my friends will be making it out to the polls. The ‘I will vote Oct. 19th’ campaign has took hold of many of my friends profile pictures, highlighting a politically engaged core of citizens that will make up this years ‘youth vote’.

Social media has never made such an impact in a federal election before. And while it continues to inspire voter turnout (granted, we won’t really know how effective it has been until after the election), it also helped crush the dreams of a few political hopefuls in this years’ regional ridings.

In mid-August, Ala Buzreba, liberal candidate for the Calgary-Nose Hill riding, had to drop out of the race after some of her old Twitter posts surfaced. Chief among the suspect tweets was one where she told a fellow tweeter to “go blow your brains out.” And in another post, she used some choice words to lash out at an Israel supporter.

Once the press picked up the tweets, it was bye-bye to Buzreba. She stepped down from her riding and then issued a formal apology. Unfortunately, the tweets in question were years old (she was 17 years old when they were published) and she claims to have been young and naïve. The tweets may have since been deleted, but she will likely be feeling their effects for a long time coming: her political career has taken a huge hit and she will always be remembered for her foul language.

Ironically, before the Tories even got a chance to make gloat about the Liberal candidate’s social media slip, something even more bizarre happened: two separate and disturbing videos of conservative candidates cropped up on YouTube. The first showcased Jerry Bance, running for the Scarborough Rouge Park riding, peeing in a coffee cup back in his days as a refrigerator repairman. The second depicted Tim Dutaud, conservative candidate in the Toronto-Danforth riding, deeply engaged childish art of prank phone calling. The pair were immediately dropped from their ridings, and they will likely never live these videos down (you can bet that Bance won’t have his old job to fall back on either).

There’s a few takeaways from the dreaded tales of Ala, Jerry and Tim. Some of the things we say and do can really come back to haunt us, especially in the social media age. Most of us probably won’t be riding for political candidacy any time soon, but you never know how deep your next potential employer is going to dig. Don’t let that naive teenage version of yourself that leave behind a lasting legacy of questionable comments. You never know when something old might come back to bite you, so it’s never too late to clean up your profile.

Oh, and make sure you get out and vote!