Vote Compass: Crackdown on offensive social media deemed appropriate

There's broad consensus in Saskatchewan that candidates who have a history of offensive comments on social media deserve to be dropped by their parties.

That's the finding of the latest report from Vote Compass,which isCBC'scitizen engagement application.

The report says people were asked about the following statement: "Candidates who have made offensive comments on social media in the past should be dropped by their parties."

While 24 per cent said they disagreed with that statement, 56 per centsaid they agreed.

The rest were neutral or didn't know.

Support for cracking down onbad social media behaviourwas there across the political spectrum.

However,it wasstrongest amongsupporters of the Sask. Party 62per cent of themsaid they agreed that removing candidates was the right way to go.

"Individuals who identify as left-leaning are somewhat more tolerant of offensive comments made on social media in the past than are those who identify as belonging to the right, a majority of whom believe that candidates who make such statements should be immediately dropped by their respective parties," said GregoryKerr, research manager for Vox Pop Labs, which created Vote Compass for CBC.

Still, Liberal supporters were 59 per cent in favour of punting candidates for past inappropriate statements on Twitter and Facebook. For Green Party supporters, it was 43 per cent.

Perhaps surprisingly, since it was the NDP that got into hot water over the issue in the early days of the election campaign, 48 per cent of New Democrat supporters agreed with a tough stanceon social media comments. Only 30 per cent disagreed.

• Sask. NDP loses 2 more candidates, campaign manager due tosocial media posts

Individuals who identify as left-leaning are somewhat more tolerant of offensive comments made on social media in the past than are those who identify as belonging to theright. Gregory Kerr,. Vox Pop Labs

The findings are based on 4,276 respondents whoparticipated in VoteCompassMarch 15-28.

The online tool lets people find out where they fit in on the political landscape in relation to the Saskatchewan Party, the New Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and the Green Party.

• Vote Compass: Offensive comments and social media

It also lets the public weigh in on issues that could come up during the campaign. The economy andhealth care have proven to be the two issues the public caresabout the most.

• Vote Compass: Try out our citizen engagement application

Other reports from Vox Pop Labs asked the public about school prayer,stripping in bars, sharing resource wealth with First Nations and whichleaders were their favourite.

Saskatchewan voters go to the polls on April 4.

About Vote Compass

Developed by a team of social and statistical scientists from Vox Pop Labs, VoteCompass is a civic engagement application offered in Canada exclusively by CBCNews. The findings are based on 4,276respondents who participated in VoteCompass from March 15to March 28, 2016. Unlike online opinion polls, respondentsto Vote Compass are not pre-selected.

Similar to opinion polls, however,the data are a non-random sample from the population and have been weightedin order to approximate a representative sample. Vote Compass data havebeen weighted by geography, gender, age, educational attainment, occupation,and religion to ensure the sample's composition reflects that of the actualpopulation of Saskatchewan according to census data and other populationestimates.