Pre-election expenditure | The CAQ champion of spending on Facebook

(Quebec) The Quebec election campaign has not started, but political parties have already started spending on Facebook to get in touch with citizens, and the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) is the one that has spent the most for three months .

Charles Lecavalier
The Press

For 90 days, the party of François Legault has spent nearly $ 30,000 to promote its publications on the Facebook platform. The CAQ paid more than $3,000 to circulate the famous advertisement of an elderly lady extolling the merits of François Legault as a manager, as well as an equivalent sum to promote the adoption of the reform of the Charter of the French language. She paid $1,000 to circulate a text stating that the CAQ has the best environmental record in history.

The party also paid $5,400 to highlight leader François Legault’s page, essentially to promote a series of ads in which he portrays himself as a “regular guy.” “Isabelle and me, we often say this: François, you are Prime Minister. It’s unbelievable”, we hear him say in one of these capsules. In addition to this sum, the page of François Legault benefits from an extremely large number of subscribers, especially due to the pandemic.

“François Legault’s Facebook page is very popular. I did a study on everything that was published in French in 2020 in four countries. François Legault has one of the busiest Facebook pages, all categories combined,” notes Jean-Hugues Roy, professor at the School of Media at the University of Quebec in Montreal, who makes a direct link with the press briefings on the pandemic broadcast on Mr. Legault’s page.

Bet everything on Duhaime

Éric Duhaime understood this well. Over the same period, the Conservative Party of Quebec did not spend a penny to promote its publications, but $10,600 to promote Mr. Duhaime’s releases. ” They are right. On Facebook, Mr. Duhaime picks up more than half of all interactions from political leaders and parties in Quebec. Éric Duhaime is the one who plays the best game Facebook,” notes Mr. Roy.

Since 2019, the majority of publications supported by Mr. Duhaime have aimed to oppose the health measures put in place by the Legault government, but since May, the conservative leader has instead promoted 5 to 7 supporters.

On the side of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), we bet $6,600 on the party’s page, and $4,300 on the page of leader Dominique Anglade. For Dominique Anglade, the bulk of this budget is intended for the broadcast of a live interview with Patrice Roy on Radio-Canada, where she presents her electoral platform. The party has invested in publicizing its charter of regions and its health plan, as well as some candidates. He also spent $1,000 to promote an outing against the “Father of the Charter of Values, Bernard Drainville.” At the party, it is indicated that the PLQ generally invests in a balanced way between social media and traditional media. An advertising campaign was launched in June, particularly in newspapers.

The Parti Québécois wagered $8,000 on its Facebook page and $300 on that of leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. Most of this money was used to promote a critique of the CAQ’s record. “The CAQ speaks of a ‘historic’ balance sheet, but is that really the case? Think of the rising cost of living, the housing crisis, poorly accessible health care, the environment, the decline of French,” laments the party.

Quebec solidaire is more meager. Between May 11 and August 8, the party paid $6,000 to promote its publications, $933 for those of Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois and $350 for those of Manon Massé. For Mr. Nadeau-Dubois, most of the budget was intended to promote his visit to Estrie to support Christine Labrie and to Rouyn-Noranda to support Émilise Lessard-Therrien, in two ridings threatened by the CAQ.

The Chief Electoral Officer wonders about pre-election advertising campaigns. “Indeed, there are no rules and not only with regard to political parties, with regard to third parties as well”, raises Pierre Reid, who says he is “concerned” by the absence of a framework for expenditure pre-election. “We have to look into that,” he said, recalling the importance of ensuring equity between political parties. Mr. Reid has also initiated a “monitoring” of the phenomenon to support his reflection and possibly present recommendations to the legislator.

With the collaboration of Fanny Lévesque, The Press