Facebook makes it easy to run illegal and ‘Astroturf’ ads, say Canadian digital political strategists
Anonymous and illegal political ad campaigns are probably already running in Canada, thanks in part to Facebook and other online advertising platforms that make it easy to skirt laws around political advertising, say political digital marketing specialists. “If you want to influence around the rules, it’s pretty straightforward to do so,” said Stephen Carter, a […]
“The federal government is reportedly considering changes to digital political advertising rules. What should be done?”
Cameron Ahmad Liberal strategist “Ensuring Canada has tough election financing laws is one way to improve, strengthen, and protect our democratic institutions. Our government is reviewing the limits on the amounts political parties and third parties can spend during elections, and proposing new measures to ensure that spending between elections is subject to reasonable limits […]
Bill to ban unhealthy food ads for kids clears Senate, House sponsor sought
With her bill having passed the Senate last week, Conservative Senator Nancy Greene Raine is now casting about for an MP in the House to champion her legislation banning the advertising of unhealthy food and drinks to children under the age of 17. Bill S-228, the Child Health Protection Act, seeks to change the Food […]
Gender pay gap due to sexism, not women’s poor negotiating skills
OTTAWA—The creative Secret deodorant message is intended to portray a young woman who is standing up for her right to equal pay. Instead, it reinforces the message that the indefensible pay gap between young women and men is the result of poor female negotiating skills. Just last week, the University of Waterloo announced a half-measured […]
Government’s non-partisan ad and communications policy met by cries of partisanship, confusion
The federal government’s new policy on partisan-free advertising and communications unveiled last Thursday, which is intended to provide “clearer and simplified guidance to officials on the conduct of government communications activities,” resulted in miscommunication and confusion within 24 hours of its release. Though the policy is intended to prevent partisan government advertising, it’s not clear […]
Corrections
A caption on page 9 in last week’s issue of The Hill Times incorrectly stated Prime Minister Paul Martin and his wife Sheila bought their Christmas wreath in the ByWard Market. The Prime Minister bought the $240 wreath at Tivoli Florist in Westboro, where Liberal candidate Richard Mahoney was campaigning. * In last week’s Heard […]
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
So much for globalism, eh? Re: “Politicians should think magnificence, do something noble: John Dalla Costa,”(The Hill Times, Dec. 19). I have just finished Saul’s The Collapse of Globalism, and it seems as though John Dalla Costa has read it as well. Perhaps the attitudes of our current politicians is just a reflection of the […]
Politicians side-stepping growth of organized crime in Canada: Public Safety Department sound alarms on multi-billion-dollar activities in secret briefings
The impact of organized crime has hardly been mentioned in the current election campaign. This, despite the fact that “Canada’s international reputation is suffering,”since many countries now see it as a growing haven for such activities, according to the Public Safety Department’s own documents from 2005. The briefings were presented to Deputy Ministers sitting on […]
Slim pickings: look at winnable ridings for female candidates: Although 36 per cent of NDP candidates are women, none is running in a winnable riding
British Columbia Liberals currently hold eight seats in British Columbia; only one of these is held by a woman (Hedy Fry). One incumbent is not running, but the candidate seeking to replace him is male. There are 15 winnable seats for the Liberals in B.C., and four female candidates in these ridings. In addition to […]
What would Harper’s Federal Accountability Act mean to lobbyists working in his war room?
It was supposed to be a just another photo op for a newly-crowned party leader, but the now infamous snapshot of then-incoming Prime Minister Paul Martin surrounded by a transition team that included some of Ottawa’s most influential lobbyists may go down in Canadian political history as the beginning of the end for the Liberal […]
