Erin O'Toole
Canada: Ontario MP Erin O’Toole talks about social media perils in his last House of Commons address
Ottawa/IBNS: Erin O’Toole, the former Conservative leader and Ontario MP reportedly warned members of Parliament in his last address to the House of Commons on Monday to avoid the dangers of “performance politics” and chasing “likes” on social media.
“Performance politics is fuelling polarization. Virtue-signalling is replacing discussion and far too often we’re just using this Chamber to generate clips, not to start national debates,” O’Toole was reported to say.
O’Toole is retiring from federal politics at the end of the month after first being elected in a byelection in 2012.
Reflecting on the last federal election’s divisiveness and how social media is shaping the country’s politics for the worse, O’Toole cautioned MPs that if Parliament is not careful there will be a future generation of voters who have not heard a viewpoint different than their own, and added,
“Today, too often, we’re allowing conspiracy theories about the UN or the World Economic Forum to go unchallenged,” O’Toole said.
“We’re becoming followers of our followers when we should be leaders.”
(Reporting by Asha Bajaj)
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