Elections Canada paid influencers prior to cancelling voter participation campaign

Elections Canada confirmed that it paid the 13 social media influencers it hired before scraping the campaign altogether, as reported by Global News.

The agency confirmed that it paid at least some amount of the $650,000 that was allocated for the 13 influencers. A spokesperson told Global News that “Yes, the influencers were paid.”

As reported earlier this month by MobileSyrup, the campaign was introduced in order to encourage voter turnout among young Canadians ahead of the federal election.

However, Elections Canada cancelled the campaign saying that some of the influencers had been previously involved in activities that could be considered partisan.

The agency previously said that prior to the selection of individuals, it went through the influencers to weed out ones who were affiliated with a political party.

Source: Global News