The King of Conservative Social Media
Update: April 29, 2022
Jeff Ballingall follows in the steps of Donald Trump in using a stream of lies and disgusting meme’s to secure a win for those he supports on his Web Site
This article originally posted in 2019 following several news articles on Mr. Ballingall were the word “shitposting” was frequently used. I originally used that word it the title of this post but it made me feel uncomfortable so I changed the title to something less controversial. However, the use of shitposting tactics has propelled Ballingall and Associates to the top of the leaderboard in capturing voter attention and he could do again this October if the center-left of politics do not get their collective ducks in order.
In another major change and following the defeat of Rachel Notley (photo below), the provinces are once again dominated by an all-male cast of heavy-hitting Conservative males.
The above photo speaks a thousand words about the state of our country in terms of gender equity. Rachel Notley is now a footnote in history and if Andrew Sheer is placed in the Prime Ministers office, women will all but disappear on the Federal and Provincial scene. In case you forgot, over the past few years, women have been among the toughest adversaries on the Federal stage. Think for a moment about Chrystia Freeland the woman who took on Donald Trump and won in the NAFTA negotiations. While all was not smooth, they held their own in the dog eat dog world of politics.
Over the past few months, Ballingall and Associates carried Ford, Kenny, Moe, Pallister, Higgs, and the King of PEI on their shoulders and all now sit as Premiers in an unprecedented sweep of the country. Today, the impish, smiling face of Andrew Sheer is their poster boy, and for Sheer, the same 
group engineered his rise to the leadership of the Conservatives over one-time party favourite Maxime Bernier.
Some suggest a wave of populism is sweeping Canada, but I beg to differ, it’s a wave of Conservative Shitposting that makes it seem that way and it only takes a handful of populists at the core to accomplish the task. Following is a sample of the type of comment found on Ontario Proud during the provincial election and this is mild stuff across the spectrum of their posts and tweets.
“That ugly nasty greedy no good money grubbing snot faced witch”; “The ugliest human dyke who ever existed”; and “I’m surprised that no one has shot her but maybe the bullets cost to much.” (Quote from Canadaland article)
Ballingall states they try to weed out the most horrific comments and perhaps they do, but they only need leave them up for a few hours in order to get thousands of views and shares and then it’s there forever to be shared by someone else. The above screenshot was taken today (Sept 15, 2019). Take a quick peek at the sites were some of their stuff is shared.
As for taking down the worst of the worst, it’s not unlike Andrew Sheer stating he does not support such posts yet never takes the time to distance himself or the party from the likes of Ballingall and Associates. Never once did you hear Doug Ford suggest many of the posts were out of line as he used the same language on the hustings much the way Donald Trump has done and continues to do.
We can’t change Sheer or the party insiders, so let’s go out and find the ways and means to win the election. In order to get a better idea of what we are up against, take a bit of time to read the original Shitposting article.
How to Win an Election in Canada
As we complete the first few days of the campaign, I met an ardent Conservative friend who just came from a local Conservative Party organizing meeting. My friend hates Justin Trudeau with a passion that goes well beyond the pale. Whenever we meet I try to avoid mentioning politics, but it’s hard with an election just around the corner and he thrives on his daily dose of shitposting, particularly if it involves anything that promotes hatred of Trudeau and the Liberals.
Yet, when I scan the broad spectrum of Conservative friends, they are pretty good folks who are generally as revolted as I am by race-baiting, fear-mongering and the spread of fake news, yet they are powerless to do anything about it. Most refuse to share vile material but often give a free pass to fake news.
Of course, the undisputed leader of shitposting is Jeff Ballingall (1), a blogger, and social media specialist. Ballingall and his buddies like Larry Brandt (2), pulled out all the stops as the go-to service for the Federal and Provincial Conservative parties. Both men are closely connected to the inner circles, with Brandt having served as Andrew Sheer’s Campaign Chair in Manitoba.
A couple of days back on September 13, 2019, the CBC aired Part 2 of their series on Fake News in which Ballingall was a featured spokesperson. Ballingall made no bones about how he is ready, willing and able to manipulate his social media followers with trash memes and fake news. And, he made it clear Elections Canada can’t do a damn thing about it as he has declared his third-party status on social media, and he’ll not come close to reaching the spending limits. Is Ballingall a Conservative? I don’t know, but it doesn’t make any difference as what he does is a business and he’s up for sale to the highest bidder.
That Ballingall and others know their business, was clearly demonstrated after Ontario Proud and a dozen other social media sites and blogs were instrumental in propelling Doug Ford to the leadership of the Ontario Conservative Party. You may remember the unseemly demise of Patrick Brown, the Conservative leader who Doug Ford replaced in a coup d’état. For a day by day outline of smears that killed Patrick Brown and gave rise of Doug Ford, go to Part 5 of The Changing Landscape. article posted some months back.
A few weeks after taking over the leadership and beyond all odds, Doug Ford became premier with a significant majority. It was no doubt one of the most dishonest, manipulated elections in recent Canadian history, one which the NDP might have won had it not been for Ballingall and his group. Not many months ago, Jason Kenny buried the Wild Rose and Brian Jean then took the Premiership in a manner similar to that followed by Doug Ford.
With all this going on in the background it’s unlikely populism is at the core. While the extreme right of the Conservative party only occupies a niche within the larger party, the majority is now held hostage by those powerful backroom forces controlled by Ford, Kenny, Pallister, and Sheer who might well be called the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
What does the future hold?
The great advantage of a political party having much of their social media presence held at arm’s length is the ability to promote divisions while at the same time denying support for material that is hateful, derogatory and degrading to individuals and groups.
Take, for example, the ongoing dispute the Conservatives have with Maxine Bernier and his Tweets and other positions he holds. The heir apparent was defeated by Andrew Sheer by the narrowest of margins, margins that Bernier claims were ‘fake votes.’ Given the revelations about the subterfuge in many Ontario Conservative ridings and then the rise of Doug Ford to the leadership, just adds fuel to the fires of suspicion. The fact that many former staffers with the Conservative Party have become leaders in the field promoting all kinds of divisions within Canada, adds more fire.
Each day these party insiders at the provincial and federal level add hundreds of meme’s, tweets and videos pushing hate, fear, fake news, and disparaging comments about other parties and party leaders, but when Maxime Bernier posts something racist, hateful or disparaging of immigrants or others, Andrew Sheer, leader becomes apoplectic. You can’t have it both ways Andrew, or can you?
The same thing is done when the Liberals, NDP or Greens does something which they suggest “shuts down public
comment” as in Quebec when Trudeau took a woman to task for her racist comments about immigrants.
Only after Andrew Sheer and the party discovered the woman was in fact deeply racist and belonged to a number of far-right hate groups, did they begin to walk back their comments? However, if you check the Conservative social media pages, blogs, and talk shows, that message is still being spread far and wide. Screenshot (above): This was the lead post on August 24, 2018, on the Manitoba Canada Campaign FB page. The site is managed by Larry Brandt, Andrew Sheer’s Manitoba Leadership Campaign Manager.
In this new age of social media political skullduggery, it will be difficult for any party not willing to use similar techniques, to gain and hold the upper hand. While I realize the Liberals, NDP and Greens are not above using questionable tactics, it is my sense they would find it difficult to begin an online campaign such as that run by the Conservatives and their arms-length staffers as there is a general abhorrence of such tactics.
Many understand victory can no longer be won on the hustings or by having a well-crafted party platform, and as long as the Greens, NDP, and Liberals sit in different camps, with the Greens and NDP picking away at the Prime Minister and Liberals, they are doomed to fail. The Greens might win a few battles by adding extra seats, but they will lose the war they are fighting on the climate front as they take down the Liberals and propel the Conservatives to power. They might wish for a minority position as they hold in BC, but that is highly unlikely as the NDP will most likely be in third place.
All Sheer and the far-right Conservatives need do is sit back and goad the parties of the left into consuming one another. Depending on the percentage taken by the Greens, as little as 30% of the vote could hand the government to Sheer. Right now they are sitting at 34%. Think about that for a moment.
The only real course of action for the Greens, NDP, and Liberals, who collectively represent 65-70% of moderate Canadians, is to start talking to one another about shared values such as their positions on climate change.
You can be damned sure the Conservatives have no interest in the subject as Jason Kenny and his group just set aside $60 million to fight the Federal Carbon tax and that money is not subject to any campaign finance laws.
To my friends with the Greens, NDP, and Liberals, who do you want sitting in the Prime Ministers office at the end of October? It’s a choice you must make and you must make it soon.
Harold McNeill
September 16, 2019
Link here to another discussion of Federal Politics The SNC Lavalin Affair
Footnotes
(1) Ontario Proud, as well as other Proud sites across Canada, were founded by former federal Conservative staffer Jeff Ballingall at the height of the furor over Ontario’s hydro rates in February 2016. An article in the Globe and Mail stated,
“… when it comes to how we get information in the digital age – the tone and tribalism of political discourse, who influences it and how, what it is likely to look like in this year’s Ontario election as well as campaigns nationwide – Mr. Ballingall’s claims can’t be dismissed out of hand. Working virtually alone, he is managing to simultaneously make a mockery of his province’s new electoral finance laws, and to demonstrate that there is a huge market here for the sort of bias-reinforcing social media content that has polarized electorates around the Western world.”
The Finance Law to which Ballingall refers was put in place only months before the Ontario election and was intended to limit the power of unions and big business from carrying out massive campaigns targetting one side or the other. For third party groups, the limit was $600,000 leading up to the election and $100,000 from the day the writ was dropped to election day. No one promoting a parties interest on social media would come even close to spending those kinds of dollars.
(2) Larry Brandt, another Conservative with long and close ties to the party, opened his first Canada Campaign FB Page in Manitoba and has since expanded across Canada. On his Twitter Site, he claims the following connections, “former MB organizer for Andrew Scheer’s leadership race. Board Exec for MP James Bezan’s Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman EDA, and former prez for MLA Derek Johnson.” Both Proud and the Canada Campaign share similar memes and videos.
Both the Proud and Canada Campaign along with dozens of other similar sites act “as official third-party advertisers in provincial and federal elections,” and those sites, “know how to weaponize social media platforms in the same manner which proved effective for the successful populist movements of Brexit and the last US election.
(3) In early 2018, the Proud Facebook page boasted 289,000 likes and by the time of the election in June, boasted 395,000. If the vast majority of those who like the page were Ontarians, as Jeff Ballingall asserted, by the time of the election he was reaching 1 in 34 Ontarians.
That’s more likes than the respective pages of Premier Wynne, the Ontario Liberal Party, Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown, the Ontario PC Party, NDP leader Andrea Horwath, and the Ontario NDP — combined. The Ontario Proud page also “gets more Facebook engagement than the Toronto Star and Globe and Mail pages together, something Ballingall is fond of gloating about.”
The following statistics were published by the Proud after the election and the accomplishments, if correct, were significant.
63,644,903 Facebook impressions
2,197,421 Twitter impressions
Over 9,400,000 video views on Facebook
Over 2,500,000 phone calls made
Over 1,000,000 text messages sent
15,000 brochures distributed at transit stations
Take a few minutes to scan the Blog, Facebook Page, Twitter accounts of Ontario Proud and their ideological partners. Link here for an outline of what one lone wolf can accomplish.
Related Posts
Is Fiscal Conservatism Dead
Left or Right: Is there a difference?
How to Game an Election
The SNC Lavalin Affair
The Kings of Conservative Media
The Changing Landscape of Politics in Canada
LINKS
Samples of Conservative Party associated FB Pages and Web Sites There are dozens more, as they seem to come and go and many are interconnected as many use the same content.
The King of Canadian Shitposting: A good summary of the type of attack now being mounted through social media.
United Conservatives Movement of Canada FB Page: Anti-Liberal, Pro-Conservative, no names provided of Movement Managers. (Broken Link)
Jeff Ballingall: Background on his Proud movement (more background)
Alberta Proud: Jeff Ballingall
British Columbia Proud: Jeff Ballingall
Take Back Your Power Canada: Jeff Ballingall
Saskatchewan Proud: Jeff Ballingall
Quebec Proud: Jeff Ballingall. The link is now broken????
Ontario Proud Blog Jeff Ballingall
Manitoba Canada Campaign: Larry Brandt, another Conservative with long and close ties to the party, opened his first Canada Campaign FB Page in Manitoba and has since expanded across Canada.
On his Twitter Site, he claims the following connections, “former MB organizer for Andrew Scheer’s leadership race. Board Exec for MP James Bezan’s Selkirk-Interlake-Eastman EDA, and former prez for MLA Derek Johnson.” Both Proud and the Canada Campaign share similar memes and videos.
Other sites by Larry Brandt:
The Cultural Action Party is an anti-multicultural political party registered in the province of British Columbia, Canada, and previously registered in Ontario. Founded by social conservative activist Brad Salzberg
Canadian Conservatives: Larry Brandt
Canada Free Press Brad Salzberg
Immigration Watch Canada No name but have Contact Us email address
Saskatchewan Canada Campaign: Larry Brandt
Alberta Canada Campaign: Larry Brandt
Quebec Canada Campaign: Larry Brandt
Ontario Canada Campaign: Larry Brandt
Take Back Your Power Canada: Jeff Ballingall
Miscellaneous Sites
Canadian Political Memes No contact or administrator detail
United Conservative Movement of Canada No contact or administrator detail (Link now broken)
Canadians for Liberty FB Page: Managed by Matt Southy, supports Maxime Bernier vision
Aaron Gunn FB Page: BC Based political commentator and closely connected to the Proud and Canada Campaign sites.
Aaron Gunn Linked In: Represent the BC Proud organization in public forums and respond to media requests ….. Produce video content for BC Proud’s social media channels (over 10 million views)
Aaron Gunn.ca: More of same.
Westwatch Canada Watching out for Western Canada
True North News Online Newspaper formate
The Post Millennial A wide range of coverage in news form.
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