The Canadian Labour Congress and an Ottawa-based research company have come under fire for a Facebook ad that alleged the incumbent Green candidate in Nanaimo-Ladysmith was behind in the polls.
Elections Canada is investigating a complaint by the Paul Manly campaign that the CLC violated sections of the Elections Canada Act that govern the use of polls in advertisements that run during election campaigns.
In a strange twist, the research company whose poll is at the centre of the complaint has threatened to sue the CLC, while an umbrella organization that oversees pollsters has questioned the credibility of the research company.
The Facebook ad that was seen by thousands of voters said a poll by Advanced Symbolics, which was cited in the ad, showed the NDP was leading in the riding and that a vote for Manly would split the vote and allow the Conservatives to win instead of the NDP.
The complaint claimed the ad did not include the poll’s survey size, methodology or margin of error, as required by Elections Canada. And, it further alleged that the CLC sponsored ad did not declare that the poll did not meet those standards, which is also a requirement.
After the complaint was made, the research company, Advanced Symbolics, posted on its website that it was never hired to conduct such a poll, and threatened to sue the CLC for making that claim. “Our company does not endorse and never has endorsed their political agenda,” said the Advanced Symbolics post.
Subsequently, a national organization that sets the standards for Canada’s research, insights, and analytics industry weighed in on the complaint with its own submission to Elections Canada.
In it, the Canadian Research Insights Council questioned the credibility of Advanced Symbolics, stating “Advanced Symbolics makes a point of not being transparent in their release of election predictions.”
The submission pointed out that Advanced Symbolics is not a member of its organization and concluded, “Were ASI a member of CRIC, these practices would be clear violations of CRIC’s standards that require sound ethical practices and transparency in the disclosure of research results.”
Ilan Goldenblatt, who launched the complaint on behalf of Manly’s campaign team, said the CLC stopped running the ads “minutes after the Vancouver Sun published its story about my complaint on Wednesday.”
However, Goldenblatt fears the damage has already been done.
“The Canadian Labour Congress thinks it can get away with it,” he said. “It knows we’ll be sifting through the rubble in the months after the election, so the CLC must figure, ‘we’ll just put this out and we’ll get a few more seats for the NDP.’”
Elections Canada will not say whether it will complete its investigation before voting day on Monday.
Meanwhile, Goldenblatt has sent emails and made several phone calls to the CLC this week, demanding it run an ad “apologizing for misleading voters,” but he said “I have not heard anything in response.”
Advanced Symbolics has not responded to Postmedia’s requests for comment.
The Canadian Labour Congress did not answer questions about the complaint, however, in a written statement it said; “the CLC has spoken to Elections Canada several times this week, including today, and this matter has not come up.”
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 different publicly available news and blog posts. The advertisements you are reporting on referenced public data on a blog post. Once that blog post was no longer publicly available, we immediately acted and the Fairness Works advertisements ceased airing on all social channels as of September 14th, 2021.”
Goldenblatt said he hopes Elections Canada will send a strong message to the CLC and other groups that 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 needs to be bothered by this.”
