(Quebec) The rallies of the Conservative Party of Quebec have drawn crowds, but it may be because it bought Facebook ads to promote them unlike its opponents. The electoral law prohibits any paid advertising, including those on social networks, during the first seven days of the electoral campaign.
Posted at 3:18 p.m.
Updated at 7:07 p.m.
Éric Duhaime again sold out at a restaurant in Trois-Rivières on Tuesday. The day before, it was the same thing in Lévis. In both cases, the PCQ spent a few hundred dollars to get its post seen by thousands of users on Facebook.
Asked by The Press on a single advertisement, that for the Trois-Rivières rally, the party’s press attaché, Cédric Lapointe, had indicated earlier in the day that the leader’s team “did not know that this advertisement had been bought” and that there were “no others to our knowledge”.
Under election law, the party could be fined anywhere from $5,000 to $50,000, depending on the seriousness of the violation and whether the ad was purchased by an individual or a corporation.
However, a search in the library of advertisements published on this social network reveals three others, including one that was broadcast today to announce another militant rally in Alma on Wednesday. She is now inactive.
Another advertisement with a video of the rally held in Quebec on August 21 and where the hall, which can accommodate 800 people, was at full capacity, was broadcast on Facebook until August 29, the day after the election was called. It would have been seen by more than a million people, according to estimates of the social network.
“We removed them,” said Conservative leader Éric Duhaime. I understood that there had been a misunderstanding. We thought we could invite people to our activities. »
He pleaded that he has been using social media for two years to advertise his public activities. “These are not significant amounts,” he added.
Advertising for the Quebec rally cost between $1,000 and $1,500, according to Facebook data. It is the most expensive of the four. The PCQ paid between $500 to $599 for the Lévis event, $400 to $499 for the Trois-Rivières one and $100 to $199 for the Alma one.
“The Elections Act provides that it is prohibited “[d’]display or [de] to display on a space rented for this purpose, advertising relating to the election “during the first seven days of the electoral period, therefore from Monday August 29 to Sunday September 4 inclusively”, confirmed the spokesperson for the Director general of elections of Quebec, Julie St-Arnaud Drolet.
This legislation provides only one exception for nomination meetings. A second advertising ban is scheduled for October 3, election day, but social networks are exempt. It only covers radio, television and newspapers.