Jamie Hall's tweets easily avoidable political trap on social media

He hadn't even been a candidate 24 hours.

On Wednesday afternoon, newly mintedLiberal candidate for SouthdaleJamie Hall told reporters he was trying to decide whether to stay in the race after Twitter comments he made a few years ago referring to women as "whores" surfaced.

The writ hasn't even been dropped, but already the Manitoba electionhas itsfirst social mediacasualty.

UPDATED

• Jamie Hall steps down as Manitoba Liberal candidate over sexist tweets
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What's surprising here aren't his words, offensive as they are.It's that neither he nor the Manitoba Liberal Partydidanything about them prior to his candidacy.

Lessons of the federal election

Justmonths ago, we endured the longest federal election in modern history. Candidates on all sidesfound themselvesbeing tripped up by their own words on social media, in many cases in posts made years in advance of their candidacies.

If you are going to run for office, social media legacy is in play,- Mark Blevis, digital strategist

The examples were numerous, including ayoung Liberal in Calgarywho, years earlieras a teen, made crude references to abortion.

In Montreal, aConservative candidate wasforced to step down over sexist comments he allegedly made in the comments section of theJournal de Montreal newspaper.

If those feel far removed from Manitoba, consider this: Winnipeg, now facing itsthird election in three years, is rife with cautionary tales of itsown.

Remember 2014?GordSteevesdoes. That's when his mayoral ambitions took a sharp turn for the worse, after old comments disparaging aboriginal people, made years before, were dug up on his wife'sFacebookpage.

In last year'sfederal election, the NDP dropped candidate StefanJonasson, after comments he made comparing an orthodox branch ofJudaismto theTaliban surfaced.

All were clear warnings candidates and parties should have been consideringin preparation for the election here.

"The fact this person didn't go throughtheir history is a big problem," says MarkBlevis,a digitialstrategist whomonitors the role of social media in publicaffairs onhiswebsitemarkblevis.com.

"I think it says a lot for the party andthe individual that no lessons were learned from the federal election."

Cleaning up the past

Now in fairness, would-bepoliticians don't have a monopoly on ill-advised posts.

Certainly afuture political bid maynot be front of mind when someone is about to hit send.

"Cleaning up" a timeline, removing potentially damaging posts, has rapidly becomestandard fare for many would-be and sitting politicians.

"If you are going to run for office, social media legacy is in play," says Blevis.

"If you don't take care in how you communicate, if you don't do the cleanup, it's fair game."

Depending on the size of a candidate's social footprint,that'soften easier said than done. Allthree parties grappled with this during the federal election and foundthemselves on the defensive just as easily as the offensive.

In Manitoba the NDP says "candidates are encouraged to review their posts and activities to ensure they are a respectful contribution to public debate and discussion."

The Progressive Conservatives say they have "internal policies we expect all candidates to follow."

Neither will say outright whether candidates are being encouraged to remove posts, but it's reasonable to expect that candidates have been just as anyone else with a social media account has the right to go back and remove a post.

At the same time, you can bet all three parties are scouring the timelines of the others' candidates, looking for anything that's been missed. This is simply the reality of modern-day politics;it's a double-edged sword.

In this case, was the NDP were the first to bring Hall's comments to light?(CBC Newseasily authenticated them byfindingthem online.)

The Liberals quickly pointed to NDP candidateWab Kinew,whofound himself defending equallyoffensivewords from amusicvideo, alsomade years before he stepped into the political circle.

For his part, Hall says he feels removing his comments would be "disingenuous." However he has locked his Twitter feed, so the general public can't see it.

Tweeting out an apology, to the public,thenbacking it up with actions wouldmean more to those offended.

In the age of social media, it'sinevitable politicians present and future willface the threat of being stepped on by theirown digital footprints.

What is surprising in this case is no one tried to get out of the way.

Ifthe Manitoba Liberals did look at Hall's timeline, they didn't look hard enough.

To borrow loosely from acatchphrase made famous by the Liberals' federal cousins, it's2016: This is how the game is played.