The Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) spent more than $120,000 reaching out to potential voters on Facebook and Instagram in the month before the election was called. An amount that goes well beyond the few hundred dollars spent by the four other main parties, reveals an analysis of the To have to.
“I am surprised by the height of the amounts spent by the CAQ”, immediately admits Thierry Giasson, director of the Political Communication Research Group at Laval University. “Studies show that the first advertisements you are exposed to have more impact than those you are exposed to later in the campaign. And with $120,000 on Facebook in a month, you can do a lot, a lot. »
The party in power at the dissolution of the National Assembly spent an average of $7,000 a day at the multinational Meta — with the exception of Saturday, the day before the start of the electoral campaign, during which almost all of its advertisements have been removed from digital platforms.
His opponents only spent a few hundred dollars daily. Only the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) spent more than $1,000 in 24 hours as the deadline approached, tripling its spending between Friday and Saturday.
The Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec had also sounded the alarm on the matter, earlier this summer, after noting that CAQ advertisements were piling up online and in traditional media.
Since Monday, the rules governing election expenses are much stricter, because the Election Act comes into force the day after the decree is issued. Expenditure is then capped according to the number of votes received in the previous election, which is not the case in the weeks and months preceding the campaign.
“It’s shameful what the CAQ did before the election was called,” laments Thierry Giasson. “Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s moral. Pre-election advertising goes against the spirit of the Election Act. The parties themselves should subject themselves to a little discipline and rigour. »
The CAQ far ahead
In the month preceding the start of the election campaign, a total of 112 CAQ Facebook pages used Meta’s services to distribute advertising on the company’s social networks.
Thirty pages of CAQ candidates exceeded $1,000 in expenses, including, at the top of the list, those of Christiane Gamache (Jean-Lesage), Bernard Drainville (Lévis) and Sylvain Lévesque (Chauveau). Their three ridings are currently the scene of the closest contests in the province, according to Qc125.
On the opposition side, there are only a few pages of incumbent MPs and candidates who have bought ads on Facebook and Instagram: five for the PLQ, seven for Québec solidaire (QS), two for the Parti québécois (PQ) and one alone for the Conservative Party of Quebec (PCQ).
At the PLQ, the leader, Dominique Anglade, stands out, with more than $6,000 spent in one month. Only three other Liberal candidates attempted to shine on digital platforms during the period examined: Frédéric Beauchemin (Marguerite-Bourgeoys), Catherine Boundjia (Mercier) and Rita Ikhouane (Gouin).
QS appears to have centralized its advertising spending online: the party’s main page spent 85% of the monies recorded in the month before the election was called. The three highest-spending candidates are Chief Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, as well as Jean-Lesage incumbent Sol Zanetti and Bonaventure candidate Catherine Cyr Wright. Their two constituencies are considered as pivots by Qc125.
The Parti Québécois, both last and first
At the PQ, there are only two candidates who have bought advertisements intended for the same platforms: Michaël Potvin (Jean-Lesage) and Yves Bérubé-Lauzière (Sherbrooke). Neither the party’s main page nor the leader’s page invested in ads on Facebook and Instagram.
But it would be “erroneous” to say that the party is completely absent from social networks, according to Marc-Antoine Martel, researcher at the Center for the Study of Democratic Citizenship: this lack of publicity could rather be explained by the high number of subscribers to the PQ page.
“That doesn’t mean that by not buying advertising, we don’t spread our message; when you have a lot of subscribers, you can have a large audience, especially with more viral content or by interacting a lot with citizens on these platforms, which promotes engagement. The Parti Québécois dominates at the moment, with more than 150,000 subscribers. »
No PCQ candidate has lent himself to Meta’s game, apart from the leader, Éric Duhaime, who sits on the list of the highest expenses among party leaders, with $10,482.
This choice to invest solely in the image of the leader is a question of credibility for the PCQ, believes Marc-Antoine Martel. “The party wants to shine by highlighting its leader, after certain candidacies have been criticized or ridiculed. Good voting intentions for the party will not necessarily translate into seats in the National Assembly; therefore, it must target certain strategic constituencies. »
“We probably wanted to use these ads to get out of the right-wing, even far-right conservative echo chamber, which is a bit like Éric Duhaime’s basic clientele. […]targeting voters who share certain demographic characteristics [avec elle] “, adds Thierry Giasson.
Because this is the whole advantage of turning to Meta to buy advertising: the Web giant collects large amounts of data on its users, which allows parties to target very precisely the recipients of their message. . “Facebook makes it possible to segment the electorate, to determine targets according to certain demographic characteristics, but also geolocation”, explains Thierry Giasson. “It’s the sinews of war. »