Efforts will target Canadians who face barriers to electoral participation
GATINEAU, QC, June 20, 2019 /CNW/ - Elections Canada will launch its pre-election Voter Information Campaign on June 25th. As an independent, non-partisan agent of Parliament, Elections Canada's mandate includes making sure all eligible electors have the information they need to register and vote.
The campaign will include several components including a website, messages delivered through Elections Canada's social media channels, shareable digital information products and educational videos as well as a national digital advertising campaign.
Elections Canada will place a special emphasis on reaching groups who face demonstrably higher barriers to participating in elections, including new Canadians, Indigenous electors, electors with disabilities, and young Canadians.
"It remains a concern to me that young Canadians are registered at a much lower rate than other segments of the population. That means that they are less likely to get accurate information about the electoral process, and are less likely to vote as they get older. We will continue to work to change that," Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault said.
The campaign will not include a planned social media influencer video that had previously been announced as part of Elections Canada's larger pre-election Voter Information Campaign.
The decision to not proceed with the video was reached after final vetting of the proposed influencers revealed some past activities that could be perceived as partisan in nature.
"I did not have the necessary reassurances I needed to make sure that Elections Canada would maintain our organizational reputation for unimpeachable neutrality," Perrault said.
Elections Canada has communicated with the contracted influencers to thank them for their work on this project. In order to be fully transparent, the list of planned influencers is included below.
More information about the Voter Information Campaign.
Visit Elections Canada's pre-election website.
Influencers:
Ashley Callingbull, actor, model and First Nations activist
Andre De Grasse, Olympic sprinter
Mitch Hughes, YouTuber
Katherine Levac, comedian
Elle Mills, YouTuber
Maripier Morin, TV host and model
Alex Nevsky, singer-songwriter
Penny Oleksiak, Olympic swimmer
Nicolas Ouellet, TV host
Max Parrot, Olympic snowboarder
Thanh Phung, lifestyle/family blogger
Lilly Singh, YouTuber and talk show host
Maayan Ziv, photographer, disability issues activist and founding CEO of AccessNow
Elections Canada is an independent, non-partisan agency that reports directly to Parliament.
Subscribe to our news service at elections.ca.
SOURCE Elections Canada
Elections Canada Media Relations, 1-877-877-9515, elections.ca
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