The federal election is still more than 10 months away, but there are growing indications it is going to be a nasty, bitter campaign.
In fact, the ugliness has already started.
The disturbing rancor that takes place in much of social media is going to bleed into the campaign. It is being pushed, in particular, by fringe elements of the political right and those who feel disenfranchised.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau especially has become the target of a particularly vicious kind of attack on social media. Aspects of the political right have taken their rhetoric beyond criticism of government policies to an almost alt-right kind of intolerance.
For example, a Facebook group calling itself the “Yellow Vest Canada” boasts 100,000 members and some of them have been posting death threats against Trudeau on the social media site.
“Shoot the mother already,” read one post. “Trudeau needs to be shot,” was another. “Why hasn’t anyone shot him yet?” was yet another.
The Yellow Vests movement appears to be loosely associated groups of people who are united in their anger at Trudeau and issues such as what they consider “illegal” levels of immigration.
Some yellow vest-clad protesters showed up at Trudeau’s recent visit to Kamloops last week. About 100 lingered outside the hotel luncheon he was attending, voicing their opposition to things like the carbon tax and immigration levels.
Expect to see them take on a larger presence as the actual campaign – the vote is set for October – draws ever nearer.
However, the venom that is swirling out there is not confined to the yellow vests folks.
I got a taste of some of it last week when I sent a tweet where I wrote that I was impressed with Trudeau’s willingness to hold these town hall meetings and face the inevitable heckling from a crowd ready to throw insults at every turn.
The reaction that tweet received was revealing. It made an astonishing 150,000 twitter “impressions” and was commented on by almost 6,500 people.
I checked many of the comments and while a lot were quite supportive of Trudeau, there was a torrent of venomous comments that had little to do with public policies and were more focused on the PM in a fairly personal way.
Labelling him intellectually incompetent, dismissing him as a drama teacher and little more, calling him a liar and worse (but thankfully no death threats) were the common thread of commentary.
In fact, a comparison could be made to the mocking, negative attacks the U.S. Republican party relentlessly aimed at Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton. Something similar is developing here.
The fact that so many people weighed in to attack a particular politician (I’ve had some fairly big responses to my tweets but nothing approaching this) suggests there is an organized effort mounting to ensure that Trudeau is associated with relentless negativity and be seen as on the defensive as much as possible to defend his reputation.
Throw in potentially divisive issues such as immigration, multiculturalism and climate change and the stage is being set for an election campaign that will be poisonous to say the least.
Concern about the descending tenor of “debate” is being expressed across party lines. NDP MP Charlie Angus, no fan of Trudeau or his party, has expressed concern of the “rising tide of extremism that demonizes the prime minister and immigrant families.”
Conservative columnist Michael Coren tweeted “there’s something deeply strange and unbalanced about the level of hatred shown a leader who is in fact very moderate and centrist.”
The backdrop to all this sees the federal NDP, beset by fundraising problems and lackluster leadership, appearing to be sinking below the waves. A chunk of its voting base will likely stay home or turn to the federal Liberals.
This will panic the federal Conservatives, who will likely push further to the right as they frantically try to use hot button issues to not only defeat Trudeau but to also fend off Maxine Bernier on the far right.
In many ways, the federal election campaign has already begun. There are times you may want to avert your eyes.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC. [email protected]
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