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Top 40 Conservative election social media fails

You could say: 40 fails this election? That’s not so bad. That’s only one every other day!  You could also (much more accurately) say:

These social media fails are just symptoms of a much deeper problem – a listless and desperate campaign run by a governing party past its best before date. And, as with any malady, you can’t just treat the symptoms to cure it. Prescription? It’s time for change.

The politics of shouting down, silencing, and steam-rolling over all opposition is reflected quite literally in the Conservative Party’s steady stream of Facebook memes, which have so far been by and large written in all-caps. AND THEY MEAN IT.

This is not a comprehensive list.

40. We will wait for the Conservatives to gain some experience in social media

When asked some reasonable questions on Facebook by a constituent, Conservative candidate Robert Strickland said he would wait for the person to “gain some experience in life” before answering their questions. This did not go well.

39. #PeopleLikeNenshi

After his party politicized the Niqab, Jason Kenney blamed Nenshi and “people like him” for politicizing the Niqab. Cue the instantly trending twitter hashtag, #PeopleLikeNenshi.




38. Jason Kenney. Again.

When he’s not busy boasting how some of his best friends are “people like Nenshi,” Jason Kenney spends his time tweeting and deleting about meeting with refugees with “perfect, unaccented English.”

37. #OldStockCanadians

This Lynton Crosby-inspired dog whistle politics is a full-fledged category of wrong that goes well beyond the scope of this list. In terms of social media it does include the fear cranked up to 11 on most Conservative Party memes. It also includes Harper’s reference to #OldStockCanadians during a leaders’ debate.







36. Name Harper’s plane

This one’s not entirely the Conservatives’ fault. They were just in the wrong plane at the wrong time.





35. Another lake fake-out

It seems the Conservatives have a penchant for fake lakes and memes with misleading stock photos. After gutting freshwater protections in Canada, the Conservatives are now pledging conservation – with stock photos of lakes from Colorado.

34. Congratulations, you’re a robo-tweeter!

70 tweets. One weekend. Zero 6th place stepdancers left uncongratulated.




33. #Peegate

Even Conservatives agree it’s time for them to go. In this case, literally.







32. The Harper Dictionary

After years, of twisting language to suit political goals, the twitterverse pulled a reverse-Orwell and launched the Harper dictionary to reclaim language for the common good.

31. #Harperman

Forgetting the first rule of How to Not Make Something Go Viral, the feds suspended a public servant for this song. Naturally, the attempted censorship of Harperman got the catchy tune trending. Big time.

Not only did the youtube video go viral from 50,000 views to over 700,000 at the time of writing, it resulted in multi-meme shrapnel, spawning at least two trending hashtags on twitter, starting with #Harperman.

30. #HarperAfolkSong

First Harperman, the video, went viral. Then #Harperman, the hashtag, went viral. And then, #HarperAfolkSong went viral. All in the same day.






29. The Conservative Party muzzles itself

After muzzling whistleblowers, scientists, charities, Elections Canada, and many more, it was just a matter of time before Harper started muzzling his own candidates.

From ditching local debates to not doing media interviews to blank bio pages on the party website, Conservative candidates are a mysterious bunch. It’s kind of like waiting for Godot – except Godot would have arrived sooner and in this case Godot can’t be found even when you launch a full cross-country search.

28. Conservative candidate says things

The Conservatives often get a hard time for muzzling… well, just about everyone, but in some cases, it’s easier to understand why the party is muzzling its candidates.

One candidate, William Moughrabi, went from over-the-top sexist facebook posts and “joking” about punching people in the face to total social media radio silence. But the interwebs doesn’t forget.

27. Another Conservative candidate says things

What could go wrong with comparing another party leader to Hitler’s propaganda minister? Unsurprisingly, pretty much everything.

26. #unseenPMOemail

Remember Mike Duffy from back in the first geological age of the federal election of ought-fifteen? Back in those heady early days, some staffers in the Prime Minister’s Office tried to avoid responsibility in the Duffy payoff by claiming they didn’t fully read a seven line email. The twitterverse helpfully chimed in with other things the PMO may have missed in its emails.



25. Ethical Guns


Shhh. Don’t talk about Harper’s secret arms deal with the Saudis. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/harper-assured-details-of-saudi-arms-deal-would-stay-under-wraps/article26105853/


Posted by Elxn42 memes on Wednesday, August 26, 2015

24. #WeAreEarlCowan

Who could forget Earl Cowan, the peppy swear-at-journalists-who-are-doing-their-job guy?

After he was widely ridiculed on social media as an icon of Conservative thinking, some party stalwarts thought starting a hashtag in solidarity would be a good idea. That went well.




23. The Eye Roll Heard Round the World

Speaking of Mike Duffy, it seems not everyone in the Conservative caucus was convinced by Harper’s version of events.


Watch Jim Flaherty’s reaction when Steve tells the House of Commons that Nigel Wright didn’t tell Ray Novak about the Duffy bribe.


Posted by Government for all Canadians, not just the wealthy on Sunday, August 23, 2015

22. Kenney’s fact deficit

Jason Kenney could be a genre of Conservative social media fails unto himself. From tweeting misleading photos and comments that are questionable at best to claiming Canada is “the only country in the world” to eliminate its deficit, Jason Kenney is in a social media fail league of his own.

21. Veterans Fail #1


Oooohh… Burn.


Posted by Thor Henrikson on Monday, August 17, 2015

20. #BarbaricCulturalPractices

Another day. Another xenophobic policy re-announcement. Another spectacular backfire.







19. Veterans Fail #2

Canada’s veterans deserve better.


Posted by The Council of Canadians on Thursday, August 27, 2015

18. Harper’s little huge media fail

Harper cracked a joke. It didn’t go all that well well…



17. Groundhog’s day policies

Same policy. Same city. Same factory.

16. #BathrobeGuy

Joe Oliver’s men-only economics announcement was already being widely panned.


Then Bathrobe Guy showed up.



15. Refugee misinformation and demonization

After tweeting a “before and after” photo, since debunked, claiming a refugee was really a member of ISIS in disguise, Conservative MP Peter Kent retweeted misinformation from Ezra Levant on the gender of refugees.

14. Lynton Crosby






13. #CPChalloweenCostumes



12. Ooopstagram

This one’s almost unfair, in the sense that the Conservatives technically didn’t do anything wrong other than having an Instagram account.

Fair warning: the reactions are saturated with coarse (and rather creative) language.

11. It’s the economy stupid


Read the fine print.


Posted by The Council of Canadians on Tuesday, September 1, 2015

1-10: Teleporting Salmon, #AngryCon, #CPCjesus and more

The original top ten Conservative social media fails are available here.

On October 19, make sure you have the ID you need, be on the lookout for any potential election fraud, and go vote for change. Then let’s get ready for what happens next.