Screenshot from Jaghmeet Singh’s Tiktok account, showing a ‘get ready with me’ video while he compares himself with Pierre Poilievre.jagmeetsingh/TikTok/Supplied
Jagmeet Singh looks straight into the camera, his long dark hair out of the turban he traditionally wears. “Let’s get ready,” he says in the TikTok video, twisting his tresses up into a tight topknot.
Riffing on the social media platform’s popular Get Ready With Me trend, the NDP Leader spends the next five minutes tying his turban while explaining the differences between him and Pierre Poilievre and why he’s the best leader to fight for the working class.
The March 15 video, which has nearly 16 million views, offers a glimpse at how modern day election campaigning is increasingly unfolding online. Ahead of the April 28 federal vote, campaign staff in war rooms have been making memes, clipping and retrofitting sound bites from YouTube podcasts, and collaborating directly with influencers. The goal is virality that can be converted into ballots, particularly from younger voters who are more likely to get their news from social media.
“Social media crushes traditional media right now,” said Fred DeLorey, a Conservative strategist and the former national campaign manager for Erin O’Toole. “That’s where the battle is fought and won.”
No party has embraced social media like the New Democrats. On TikTok and Instagram, the party churns out niche memes, a stark contrast to the classic political ad. Even before the election was called, the NDP started courting content creators. The party has set up a Discord server, which has functioned as a large chat room for campaign staff, volunteers and influencers to communicate throughout the campaign. Mr. Singh has also posted videos on TikTok calling for influencers to join him on the campaign bus.
Hazel Thayer, a Victoria-based content creator who posts about climate policy and Canadian politics, filmed with Mr. Singh after an NDP staffer reached out to her with the opportunity for an interview. In the videos, they talk about crypto scams and the NDP’s proposed price cap on essential grocery items.
“The NDP are doing the Democrat thing, where they are specifically saying, ‘content creators, we want to talk to you,’ rather than letting it happen organically,” says Ms. Thayer, who is a dual American citizen and attended the 2024 Democratic National Convention as an influencer. “I did have a very fun, cool conversation with Jagmeet Singh. But their new influencer marketing strategy, I worry it seems a little artificial.”
That’s the rub for political parties wading into an unfamiliar online territory. While understanding internet vernacular can make a politician appear more relatable to younger voters, it can backfire if it comes off as inauthentic.
“I think there is a fine line that needs to be straddled between catering to the Gen Z vote and really appealing to them, and coming off as a little bit too ‘How do you do, fellow kids?’ says content creator Seth Deroia, referencing the meme of a skateboard-wielding Steve Buscemi. “It might come off as a little bit cringe.”
The 29-year-old makes memes in support of Liberal Leader Mark Carney for his TikTok account StevenDelDucaFan, named after the former leader of Ontario’s Liberals. Mr. Deroia is not officially affiliated with either Liberal Party, but he believes his account fills a gap that can win over young voters.
While the Liberal Party’s approach to social media mainly involves sharing snippets of Mr. Carney’s stump speeches on Facebook and Instagram, Mr. Deroia is cranking out memes calling Mr. Carney “brat” (a throwback to the Charli XCX meme of last summer), remixing debate clips and poking fun at the Conservatives’ drop in the polls.
Mr. Deroia believes it makes sense that the Liberals’ official social media strategy is more traditional, since Mr. Carney is polling well with older Canadians, according to polling by Nanos Research conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV.
“When Mark made that elbows up campaign with Mike Myers, some people can call it a little bit corny, but I thought it was kind of a stroke of genius,” said Mr. Deroia.
On the flip side, in just the past two months, Mr. Deroia says his account has received around 2.5 million views, with the majority of those users 18 to 25-year-olds. “I think for a lot of people it’s kind of a breath of fresh air,” he says. “A lot of the Canadian meme culture has been like a little bit more on the older side. It hasn’t really embraced the more Gen Z, absurd forms of humour.”
Meanwhile, the Conservative Party hasn’t appeared to collaborate directly with social media creators. Instead, strategists and media experts say the party gets boosted through organic content creation from its supporters.
Mr. DeLorey, the conservative strategist, points to the Pleb Reporter, a YouTuber who has followed Pierre Poilievre’s campaign across the country and livestreams his evening rallies to tens of thousands of viewers. In an e-mail with The Globe and Mail, the YouTuber says he has no affiliation with the party and that they’ve never covered his travel costs or paid him to attend a rally.
The Liberals and Conservatives did not respond to questions from The Globe about whether they offer any financial compensation to influencers. The NDP said they did not pay the creators who collaborated with the party.
Mr. Poilievre has largely eschewed traditional media interviews and instead has opted for long-form podcast interviews, including with right-wing cultural critic Jordan Peterson. Elizabeth Dubois, the research chair in politics, communication and technology at the University of Ottawa, describes Mr. Peterson as having his own gravitational pull, with an orbit of influencers that create content in response to his every move.
“By Pierre Poilievre going on Peterson’s show and talking to him, that was a way of getting into a large network of influencers in a largely right-leaning sphere,” says Dr. Dubois. The video, titled Canada’s Next Prime Minister has more than 5.6 million views on YouTube and another 42.9 million on X.
But as Ms. Thayer, the climate policy influencer, says, social media isn’t the end-all-be-all to get young people – or potential voters more broadly – on board with a party. “It’s not playing the social media game, but instead just having really inspiring policies,” she says.
