Incumbent council candidates don't have to ditch their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts

Incumbent candidates for mayor and council in Winnipeg may continue using existing social media accounts through the election campaign instead of having to start new ones from scratch.

Winnipeg integrity commissioner Sherri Walsh decided this week incumbent mayoral candidate Brian Bowman and incumbent council candidates do not have to stop using their existing Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts during the race for mayor.

• New faces, new wards, new voting tech: Winnipeg's municipal election season has sprung
• The 6 Winnipeg wards to watch as election season enters new, busier phase

Walsh said she initially thought it would be wise for incumbent candidates to create "whole new accounts," as incumbents do in some Ontario jurisdictions, based on the idea social mediaaccounts could beseen as city property.

Upon further consideration, she decided to follow Calgary's lead and allow incumbents to continue using existing accounts, provided they post a disclaimer during the campaign period.

"In practice, it's not all that straightforward to suddenly gather a whole bunch of new followers," Walsh said Friday in an interview in her downtown office.

She said she wanted to balance the need to create a level playing field for all candidates with aguidelinethat incumbents could actually follow.

Hence the decision to allow exiting accounts to be used, with a disclaimer.

"Even if they used those accounts prior to the election, they can use those accounts for campaign purposes, so long as they put a disclaimer on the account that says the account is not funded by the cityanddoes not reflect city policy," she said.

• Code of conduct revamp for Winnipeg city council proposes new sanctions for rule breakers

St. Charles Coun. Shawn Dobson, who will seek re-election this fall in the St. James ward, said he is disappointed by Walsh's decision.

"For her to come out this late, I think some of this should have been put off to the next election," Dobson said Friday in an interview in his current ward.

"Our city is trying to level the playing field for all candidates and that means councillors andmayors can not use city resources or equipment or anything in an election," he added, making the argument that incumbents' social media accounts are city resources because their follower counts rose while those politicians were in office.

"A lot of those would have been obtained because of the position," he said.

For example, Bowman has 66,000 Twitter followers, 17,100 Instagram followers and 8,566 people following his Facebook page.

His dog, Indiana, also has an Instagram account with 97 followers.

Bowman's communications director Jonathan Hildebrand said in a statement the mayor is following all the rules created for members of council by the integrity commissioner and election officials.

Next week, executive policy committee will consider a motion by TransconaCoun. Russ Wyatt to compel council candidates to disclose all social media advertising, including ads targeted to specific voters.

The move follows the use of targeted ads now believed to have swayedthe Brexitvote in the U.K.and the U.S. presidential race in 2016, according to the motion.

Wyatt said in an interview that in the interest of democracy,everyone ought to see what candidates are saying to specific groups of voters.

Incumbent council candidates don't have to ditch their Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts

6 years ago

Duration 2:07

Incumbent candidates for mayor and council in Winnipeg may continue using existing social-media accounts through the election campaign instead of having to start new ones from scratch.