On social media, some things you say or do will inevitably come back to haunt you. A handful of (former) NDP candidates have learned that the hard way. In case you've been stranded on a desert island for the last week, the election has just begun and NDP Leader Cam Broten has dropped and replaced four candidates from his party over the span of three days, all for the same reason: their reckless use of social media.
Candidates were given the boot for inappropriate posts traced back to their names, ranging from a sexist exhortation to spank women while holding doors for them posted by former Saskatoon Northwest candidate Clayton Wilson, to the suggestion on the part of former Weyburn-Big Muddy candidate Mark Jeworski, that incumbent premier Brad Wall should have been aborted as a baby.聽Classy.
Correct me if I'm mistaken, but shouldn't a thorough search of potential candidates' social media be part of the vetting process? Not that I'm (only) blaming whomever the party gets to do background checks. Social media has been around long enough, that there's really no excuse for the candidates. Services like Facebook and Twitter are fertile grounds for political missteps. They are familiar enough, that any candidate should know that if they want to stay politically relevant, they need to watch what they post.
Unless you implement a total content-purge on Facebook running back to around 2006 or have hermetic security measures in place, your profile can easily be browed through, and old, incriminating information, found. In politics, where your opponent is going to come at you from every angle, trying to hurt your credibility, having sexism, racism and other such sensitive subjects associated with your name is the political equivalent of shoving a stick into the spokes of your own bike, while you鈥檙e riding it. That includes everything from arguing a little too vehemently on someone's Facebook page when they say something you don't agree with, to what pictures and memes you repost or even click "like" on.
A few years ago, I remember being part of countless seminars and hearing plenty of public service announcements advising people around my age looking to pursue any sort of career, to cut back on the photos of Jager Bombs and keg stands, for fear of not appearing professional.
When the career you're looking to pursue involves being the representative of a vast multitude of other people, you want to make sure you put your best foot forward everywhere you go, on and offline. Sure, it's okay to argue and disagree on Twitter.聽 It's okay to reason and back up your point when someone posts something inaccurate on your Facebook page, but from what I鈥檝e seen of the candidates' use of social media this past week, there was none of that happening. It was all pretty crude, and to put it tersely, kind of unfair to the thousands of people those candidates wished to represent. Even if some of that stuff was on there before those people decided to be candidates, that isn鈥檛 an excuse either. It鈥檚 incumbent on them to do a little tidying up if they want to go public.
All hope may not be lost for the nixed candidates, though. A very similar situation happened in Alberta, almost a year ago, when the NDP got elected. Deborah Drever, a newly minted MLA for Calgary-Bow made the mistake of not doing a perfunctory one-over of her social media presence. It entailed some very unflattering content, including a homophobic post describing the former premier and interim leader of the Alberta PC party as "gay boyz,鈥� and a photo of her featured on a band's album cover that appeared to be mocking sexual assault.
Drever was suspended, but went on to contribute handsomely in legislature, by introducing Bill 204, a bill that help victims of domestic violence break leases early so they could get away from their abusers. That bill is now law, and her informed, well-researched action showed the Alberta NDP that she was far more mature and capable an MLA that she was assumed to be at first, with her juvenile social media gaffes.
The fable of Deborah Drever says there can be political life after a social media gaffe, but remember: there鈥檚 a reason it鈥檚 called 鈥渟ocial鈥� media. Everyone else can see it. Conduct yourself accordingly.
