“It initially seemed like a typical disagreement (with our data),” a spokesperson for Smart Voting said. “It raised concerns, but at the time we chose not to escalate it.” They explained that they were unwilling to talk to any reporters about the messages at first, believing they could, and should, manage it themselves.
“(But then) public videos began to surface, discouraging voters from engaging with strategic voting.” the spokesperson said. They explained that they were mostly from NDP affiliates, and by searching their names on Google, they found that these affiliates were highly implicated in various municipal governments or activist groups. “Then came videos from candidates themselves, including Matthew Green in Hamilton Centre.” Matthew Green, during his live streams on the subject, claimed that the organization was “Liberal-paid” and “undemocratic.”
They received email after email, pressuring them to change their published data, which is based on publicly available, up-to-date polling numbers. Val Laeknir, the general manager of the website, told The Rover that, at first, these emails weren’t too bad. But then, after they sped up, they began affecting her and Smart Voting’s volunteers’ mental health. It became a stressor in every aspect of their lives.
“We have been called ‘fake socialists,’ ‘Liberal pawns,’ ‘paid by the Liberal Party,’ and ‘undemocratic.’ These are not just insults. They are attempts to discredit our values and isolate us from the communities we care deeply about,” Laeknir said.
She believes that this is tantamount to a harassment campaign. Legal experts say that while the campaign does appear potentially problematic, it does not meet the legal threshold for harassment.
“I don’t think that amounts to harassment,” Duff Conacher, co-founder of Democracy Watch said. “It has to involve some sort of threat.” He explained that the Canada Elections Act has made intimidation of political opponents illegal, but as far as he can tell, this isn’t within that definition.
“I wouldn’t argue that it’s harassment in court,” said Frédéric Bérard, a Doctor of Law and political scientist. He explained that unless there was abusive or aggressive language, this wouldn’t be qualified as harassment in a legal sense. But, “it doesn’t seem in character for the NDP to do this,” he said.
Although it does not fit the definition of harassment, digital strategist Roxane Nadeau contextualized the issue as a broader failure of digital literacy. “The neutrality of the web creates a space where civility and civic responsibility often collapse,” she said. “Just because you’re on a screen doesn’t mean you can say whatever you want.” Legalities aside, the lack of human dignity in online discourse seemed to her to be a serious problem, and this occasion highlights that. The NDP disagreed that there was impropriety in its members’ behaviour online.
“The NDP is committed to providing an environment free of harassment and has a zero-tolerance policy,” Jonathan Gauvin, Deputy Campaign Director said in a statement to The Rover. “We have followed up on a few occasions but have not received any information or complaint on which we could act.”
In response to the statement, JB Burrows, founder and managing director of Smart Voting, said that he was in constant communication with the party and had prepared to hand over their data when the messages and videos multiplied.
“Their ‘attempts’ to reach out were one phone call with no voicemail and one text message shortly after. There were no repeated attempts by them.” Burrows said.
In a final call with George Soule, an NDP member, Burrows said his concerns were dismissed. “Soule told me, ‘If you’re in this game you have to take some heat.’”
The party’s mishandling of digital communications extended beyond Smart Voting. Lou Kerr, head of the NDP’s creator outreach program, and several campaign staffers reportedly alienated prominent online partners during the second week of the campaign. One such partner was Jess Wetzstein, a well-known content creator who was singled out by the National Post for having an OnlyFans page and supporting Palestine. She was also attacked by The Western Standard for her OnlyFans page, her support for reproductive rights, and for drawing comparisons between comments from an Israeli member of parliament about babies killed in Gaza and comments from Nazis about babies killed in the Holocaust.
Despite the NDP’s public support for abortion rights, sex workers, and a ceasefire in Gaza, the party did not defend Wetzstein. “We disagree with the comparison that was made,” the NDP stated about her, while refusing to comment on the Post’s questions about her OnlyFans. Following the Post article, the party proceeded to cease working with her without notice.
Wetzstein said in a Discord thread that she had informed the party she would be unavailable due to surgery on the Wednesday night they gave their comment to the National Post. The party did not leave her a message, and she only found out about the NDP response after publication. She was blindsided, as was the entire community of content creators working with the NDP.
Kerr later apologized in a Discord forum: “Jagmeet faces racist hate and personal attacks all the time. We aren’t going to feed a media cycle designed to shame or sensationalize. Our silence wasn’t avoidance — it was a deliberate choice to protect her dignity.” The response was not well received. Several creators criticized the apology as insincere and vowed to distance themselves publicly from the party.
This pattern of silencing people who speak out against the genocide in Gaza has been going on in the background.
Cora, who, as far as she knows, is a candidate for the NDP in Alberta, has had strong convictions about the violence being enacted by the Israel Defense Forces for a long time, participating in protests against the war and regularly posting online about it. As she went through the vetting process, which candidates in any party go through, the party told her she had to remove any photos or public association with Gaza protests from social media.
“I was willing to do that in good faith,” Cora said. “To reduce controversy to the party.” She had to rationalize this decision despite her deep convictions about Palestine. The NDP employee vetting her told her that he would have to escalate the issue within the party and inform the higher-ups.
“That call was Friday the 4th. Ghosted. Haven’t heard a single thing since then,” she said. The final day to withdraw a candidate from the election was Monday, April 7. As far as she knows, the party did not withdraw her. It also did not inform her which riding in Alberta was the one she was running in. Cora told The Rover that this dysfunction seemed to be everywhere within the party, but she could only speak anecdotally from her own observations and experience.
With just two weeks until election day, Jagmeet Singh is under growing pressure to explain the state of his party. If the projections hold, the NDP could face a devastating electoral defeat — and be left without a leader.
Whether the party can recover before April 28 remains to be seen.
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