Hot Talk - Election Campaign Conduct

The Hot Topic this Week is: Election Campaign Conduct – Can we do better?

“When you throw dirt at people you’re not doing a thing but losing ground.”

Zig Ziglar

This simple yet meaningful quote says it all.

This past election campaign saw a lot of dirt throwing on social media. “Mudslinging” is the phrase most often used on community Facebook pages. Many people commented on the embarrassment, the distaste and even the disgust of it all. Many more stated that it was enough to make them not want to vote at all. By the end of election day on October 18th, approximately 35% of eligible voters came out to cast their ballot. 

In the end, did the mudslinging on social media truly cause the rest of us to stay home and not vote – or did it just leave mud on the face of Chestermere? 

Many of us feel that this unsavoury behaviour only occurred here in Chestermere, but are we really so different from other municipalities when it comes to dirty campaigning? I don’t think so. Look around and you’ll see the same tactics used in other cities in every level of government from municipal, to provincial to federal to global.

Sadly, Chestermere is not unique in our use of throwing dirt; it is a very common and very sad reality around the world.  Mudslinging is not by any means a new tactic. History shows some outrageous election campaign behaviour ever since democracy began.

But just because it has been done before and is done all around the globe, that doesn’t mean that it’s acceptable. Maya Angelou, the famous African American poet and social activist often said “Do the best you can with what you know. Then when you know better, do better.”  Can we do better? Yes, I feel certain that we can! But will we? 

How many of us are truly outraged by what we have seen to want to actually do something to change the environment for future election campaigns? And how many of us actually enjoy a dirty social media fight and heartily welcome the opportunity to give someone a public smackdown?  We have heard so many candidates start their campaigns with the intention to keep it clean and not engage in attack ads and mudslinging. But somehow that resolve gets lost along the campaign trail and before you know it the gloves are off! Then it gets amped up when the Candidate’s loyal supporters take up the banter and start throwing dirt too. 

Supposing that the majority of us truly want this behaviour to stop, how do we do better next time around? I believe that with collective intention and a collaborative action plan we can lift ourselves out of the dirt to rise up to a higher level of conduct.

What would constitute a collaborative action plan?

To begin with we could form an Election Campaign Code of Conduct Panel (ECCCP) made up of a broad spectrum of people in our community who understand and uphold good governance of non-partisan principles and practices. Then we begin working on the foundation principles of acceptable campaign ads and messages.

Next, we create a social media platform, such as a dedicated Facebook page, where all candidates post their campaign messages. This would save the other FB pages in our community the task of managing the onslaught of campaign mudslinging. It would also save the visitors to that non-political FB page the headache and annoyance of wading through a steady stream of dirt to get to the heart warming posts they are seeking (like photos of beautiful sunsets over our lake, the kiddo’s sports game, someone’s milestone birthday, a charity fundraiser or celebration of someone’s big accomplishment.)

The ECCCP could effectively manage a single FB page dedicated to the election campaign monitoring it as needed; giving a “time out” penalty to candidates who violate the guidelines and post unacceptable messages by freezing their posts for 24 hours. This won’t be perfect right off the bat, but with collective intention, collaboration and perseverance we will eventually rise up to that higher level of conduct that we seek. 

Tony Gaskins, a motivational speaker, author and life coach advises us “You teach people how to treat you by what you allow, what you stop and what you reinforce.”  No one is born knowing how to sling mud, we learn how to do that. It stands to reason then, that we can also learn a better way to communicate - without the mudslinging. 

This proposal may seem like a huge stretch and impossible to manage, but I think it is worth investigating at the very least. Clearly the campaign mudslinging affected many of us in a very negative and impactful way, as people are still posting messages of disgust on social media. Yes, these feelings will eventually die down over the next months and years; just as they have in the past. But come next election, we will likely see a repeat of the same behaviour and be hurtled right back into this negative space all over again; and it may get even worse!

I feel that we must try to do something to interrupt the process. If we choose to do nothing more than just hope for the best, then we better be prepared to see the same show 4 years from now. This is not a reflection or supposition of our current Council members and how they might conduct themselves should they run for re-election. We don’t know who will be running for election in 2025, so let’s set the standard now while things are relatively calm. 

I propose that we begin the conversation now in preparation for 2025. Just think, if we succeed, Chestermere could become the model city of good campaign conduct. What a worthy goal that would be to achieve! 

This is my opinion – what’s yours? 

[democracy id="5"]

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