Canada Proud should be ashamed

How Canada Proud’s misleading tactics harm more than just their targets.

Canada Proud, the right-wing provocateurs and third-party advertising group closely aligned with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, are not exactly renowned for their subtlety. Their social media ads frequently veer into crass territory, yet clearly resonate—evidenced by their hefty investments in Meta's Facebook and their savvy optimization of messaging and targeting.

Recently, however, Canada Proud has crossed a disturbing ethical line with a series of attack ads targeting Prime Minister Mark Carney, insinuating unsavoury connections to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier infamous for sex trafficking crimes. Leveraging an innocuous photograph from a 2013 public event—featuring Carney and his wife alongside Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell—the group crafted ads designed explicitly to inflame suspicion.

Viewed nearly two million times, these ads juxtapose Carney's image with troubling visuals linked to Epstein, employing provocative text to question Carney’s judgment without explicitly making accusations. This calculated ambiguity allows Canada Proud to skirt outright defamation, while still planting seeds of suspicion. The resulting comments and shares show precisely how effective—and dangerous—this strategy can be, turning a benign encounter into fodder for online conspiracy theories and baseless smears.

Such tactics exploit the unchecked power of social media, highlighting how loosely regulated platforms amplify misinformation and polarizing discourse. Carney's team has rightly emphasized the fleeting and inconsequential nature of his interactions with Maxwell, yet Poilievre’s silence on whether he endorses Canada Proud’s ethically dubious approach speaks volumes.

As we enter an election campaign that promises to be hard fought, it's past time to demand higher ethical standards in political advertising or risk further erosion of the democratic principles Canadians hold dear.