Sick of nasty election discourse? Get used to it

CALGARY (660 NEWS) — Elections are usually not for the faint of heart in the best of circumstances, but this has become especially true in recent years.

Take the provincial election, for example, where the smoke is still clearing from a contentious campaign between the Alberta NDP and the now-governing United Conservative Party.

Press releases about a candidate making offensive comments or railing against government spending became commonplace, and at some points, leaders were more focused on discrediting their opponents than presenting policies.

With a federal election looming this fall, don’t expect any improvement.

“I think the federal election is going to be a lot worse,” said John Santos, a pollster with Janet Brown Opinion Research.

Santos says negative campaigns and attack ads have been a feature of elections since “time immemorial”, but there are a few modern-day factors that are exacerbating the issue.

“Now that we have the rise of social media, where citizens can get information directly and share it directly, there’s also the rise of alternative, independent media outlets. These so-called media outlets will share their own stories — often times they’re not very well researched — and they’re more incendiary and meant to provoke, rather than provide information, and it spreads through social media like wildfire,” Santos added.

This is a trend also noticed by Calgary’s mayor.

“Our 2017 election here in Calgary was kind of nasty, and this provincial one was kind of nasty, and I sadly expect the federal one will be too,” said Naheed Nenshi. “Really, I’ve got to say the players make the game.”

Which leads into the next point — how campaigns are capitalizing on anger, which some have dubbed as populism.

“More often than not, what negative campaigning is meant to do is to stir up one’s own supporters, get the base fired up so that they show up and vote, and trying to convert the soft support from other parties is often a secondary matter,” said Santos. “And not only are they just pumping out information for their supporters, but they’re whipping them up into a frenzy as well. And add to that potential foreign or external interference and the situation just gets even worse.”

So while Santos speculates this is how the discourse helps some, it can also backfire.

“It increases voter turnout among people who are negative, who used to never vote. Because haters just kind of hate government and didn’t want to get involved, and now they vote like crazy,” said Nenshi.

“Negative messaging is only effective if it’s followed up with a positive message that talks about one’s own ideas and one’s own policies,” added Santos, who said this is where the NDP failed in the Alberta election.

Nenshi said the situation has gotten so bad he can no longer properly engage with citizens on Twitter, where even a helpful message about green carts can devolve into accusations of “eco-terrorism”.

But the Mayor believes there is still reason to be optimistic — as long as voters demand better.

“So it’s up to us as voters to say, listen, don’t just yell at one another and accuse each other of being negative or smearing one another, and tell us what matters and ask good questions,” said Nenshi. “How do we increase voter turnout in a way that actually helps people be thoughtful about their choices?”