Brain Drain

Last summer, Elections Canada launched an online video campaign to improve voter turnout among young people, with an eye to the federal election. It waged this offensive using “influencers,” individuals who have — or can readily create — significant followings on social media platforms: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and so on. But the agency, desiring to appear completely beyond reproach, cancelled the campaign only weeks after its announcement, when it discovered potentially partisan posts made by two of the influencers. (At the time, most of the $650,000 budget had already been spent.)

Elections Canada’s decision to cancel the program is of less interest than its decision to use such people in the first place. The miscellany of those appointed — athletes, musicians, actors, bloggers, and YouTubers — was typical of the influencer phenomenon, as was their lack of expertise. In an era when fewer and fewer read or view traditional media outlets, both public...