The almost never-ending political season is well underway down in the states, it has been for months, and we still have over two months to go before we move into the start of the next election cycle.
Here in BC, we still have three weeks before the official writ is dropped, and a month before we know who the candidates are.
I have always appreciated that about Canadian politics. Sure, it can get punchy, but generally that is constrained to a period of about three weeks.
But this go about, I’m expecting it to get ugly.
Indeed, if you’re paying attention, it’s been pretty ugly already.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been getting emails from the BC United.
While many of them are exactly what you’d hope for—messages about their policies and priorities heading into this election—far too many of them have been on the attack against the BC Conservatives, who are currently ahead in the polls.
Consider this one, which I received a couple days ago: “Following yesterday’s reveal that John Rustad’s candidate for Prince George-Mackenzie spread conspiracy theories that 5G is a weapon and was the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic, new revelations show that Rachael Weber has further suggested that microchips and credit cards are signs of the Antichrist’s arrival and the impending Rapture, raising serious questions John Rustad’s choice to defend her as his candidate.”
The email goes on to explain that back in August, 2021, Weber posted, “The anti christ comes before the rapture… microchips, no cash/just plastic, Marshall Law, Total Government dependency/control.” She further stoked fear by saying, “We are seeing a lot of ‘firsts’ since January. Can our minds and bodies handle what’s coming?”
The email then goes on to talk about how she had previously said that 5G cell signals are a genocidal weapon linked to the pandemic.
And then local MLA Mike Bernier goes on to say: “Can you imagine having a Minister of Infrastructure who believes we need to halt 5G tower construction because they are secretly weapons, or having a Minister of Job Creation and Innovation who believes credit cards will summon the Antichrist? Well, that’s what you could get with John Rustad’s conspiracy party.”
It might seem like Bernier is going on the offensive, but for the last few months, he’s been the target of a variety of name calling and social media attacks. Indeed, when he came to town a few months back, the RCMP was in attendance, due to unspecified threats against him.
It’s not the first time he’s been the target of threats. In 2014, a Pouce Coupe man was given a six month conditional sentence for posting threats against Bernier. And during the pandemic, someone posted on Facebook: “perfect, now we know where he is. Let’s get our guns and go shoot this guy so we don’t have to listen to him any more.”
Huh. Maybe it never stopped being ugly. Maybe we just aren’t looking in the right place.
Or maybe it’s hard to hear people uttering threats against the local MLA when there’s wars in the Middle East and the Ukraine. When major media outlets cover the latest thing Trump has said (“didjahear? He’s threatening to pull out of a debate with Harris, because Harris wants the mics to stay on during the debates so people can hear what he mutters to the other candidates when they’re talking!”), it is hard to hear what’s happening locally.
Or maybe it’s the fact that engagement with local Canadian news outlets has dropped 58 percent since August of last year, when the Meta news ban began. There’s 11 million fewer views per day for Canadian news sources. 212 local news sources are no longer active on social media. At least 36 local news outlets closed. Or maybe—and this could just be me being cynical—it’s the fact that more than half of Canadians haven’t even noticed that there is a Meta news ban.
Part of that is because people are still discussing issues like politics as much as they used to be on social media.
But—and here’s the important part—they’re doing it without any verified source of information. They’re just flapping their gums to feel the breeze as my ma used to never say, but let’s pretend that she did. Instead of arguing about facts, now everyone is arguing opinions.
Okay, so that’s always been the case, but I used to enjoy stepping into some of these discussions and providing actual, factual information. Media judo.
I’ve tried that a few times in the last year, only to have my post rejected. “Uh, uh, uh,” says Meta. “That sounds like news to me.”
And so we head into our social media corners, free of knowledge and able to engage in the most reprehensible behaviour.
I mentioned that MLA Bernier has had to deal with threats, sometimes even to his life. But people have decided they can also threaten, cajole, insult and otherwise involve his family.
Exactly one month ago as I write this on Monday August 26, my cousin—whose husband happens to be Mike Bernier—bid farewell to Facebook until after the election.
“Well, it’s become apparent that I need to remove myself from Facebook again leading up to the election,” she wrote. “Unfortunately, this time I have to do so three months in advance and not just after the writ drops.
“Usually the ditch pigs only come out during the election, but this time they’ve been on our pages since October, and I’m tired. Tired of the hate, tired of the ignorance and tired of the lack of human decency. The majority of people are normal and that’s great. But I’m just not able to deal with the ones that aren’t.”
So thank you, people of the South Peace, for showing your ugly underbelly. I used to think that shining a light on the worst of human behaviour would sanitize society.
Turns out, it’s just made people worse as they act out for the spotlight.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
