The Facebook ad which was seen by thousands of voters said that an Advanced Symbolics poll, which was cited in the ad, showed the NDP leading the constituency and a vote for Manly would split the vote and allow the Conservatives to win instead of the NDP.
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The Canadian Labor Congress and an Ottawa-based research firm have come under fire for a Facebook ad that claimed the outgoing green candidate in Nanaimo-Ladysmith was behind in the polls.
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Elections Canada is investigating a complaint from Paul manly campaign that the CLC violated sections of the Canada Elections Act that govern the use of polls in advertising aired during election campaigns.
In a bizarre twist, the research firm whose poll is at the center of the complaint threatened to sue the CLC, while an umbrella organization that oversees pollsters questioned the credibility of the research firm.
The Facebook ad which was seen by thousands of voters said that an Advanced Symbolics poll, which was cited in the ad, showed the NDP leading the constituency and a vote for Manly would split the vote and allow the Conservatives to win instead of the NDP.
The complaint alleged that the ad did not include the survey size, methodology or margin of error, as required by Elections Canada. Further, he alleged that the CLC-sponsored ad did not state that the survey did not meet those standards, which is also a requirement.
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After the complaint was filed, research firm Advanced Symbolics posted on its website that it had never been hired to conduct such a survey and threatened to sue the CLC for making the claim. “Our company does not and has never approved of their political agenda,” the Advanced Symbolics post said.
Subsequently, a national organization that sets the standards for Canada’s research, ideas and analysis industry weighed in on the complaint with its own submission to the Office of the Commissioner of Canada Elections.
In it, the Canadian Research Insights Council questioned the credibility of Advanced Symbolics, stating that “Advanced Symbolics makes a point of not being transparent in its publication of election forecasts.”
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The submission pointed out that Advanced Symbolics is not a member of its organization and concluded: “If ASI were a member of CRIC, these practices would constitute flagrant violations of CRIC standards which require sound ethical practices and transparency in disclosure. search results.
Ilan Goldenblatt, who filed the complaint on behalf of the Manley campaign team, said the CLC stopped running the ads “minutes after the Vancouver Sun published its article on my complaint on Wednesday.”
However, Goldenblatt fears the damage has already been done.
“The Canadian Labor Congress thinks it can get away with it,” he said. “He knows we’ll be sifting through the rubble in the months after the election, so the CLC needs to figure out, ‘We’re just going to shut it down and we’ll get a few more seats for the NDP.
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Meanwhile, Goldblatt emailed and made several phone calls to the CLC this week, demanding that he run an ad “apologizing for misleading voters,” but said: “I didn’t. nothing heard in response ”.
Advanced Symbolics did not respond to Postmedia’s request for comment.
The Canadian Labor Congress, however, did not respond to questions about the complaint in a written statement, he said; “The CLC has spoken to Elections Canada several times this week, including today, and this issue has not been raised. “
The CLC defended its advocacy work and its use of third-party organizations, including Fairness Works, which it contracted to create the ads.
“As is common practice, Fairness Works advertisements used information gathered from various publicly available news and blog posts. Ads you report on public data referenced on a blog post. Once this blog post was no longer publicly available, we took immediate action and Fairness Works ads ceased to run on all social channels effective September 14, 2021.
Goldblatt said he hopes Elections Canada sends a strong message to the CLC and other groups who are tempted to fund similar ad campaigns in the future.
“Whether Paul wins or loses, anyone who cares about the integrity of our electoral system must be disturbed by this.”
