The Use of TikTok for Political Campaigning in Canada: The Case of Jagmeet Singh

Abstract

TikTok is a critical platform for political campaigns seeking to engage with new publics through digital advocacy. Jagmeet Singh, the leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party, has emerged as a TikTok celebrity since establishing his profile in 2019. At the time of writing, he is the only Canadian federal party leader using TikTok with his interactions greatly surpassing those on his other social media profiles. Strategically utilizing TikTok to promote his social justice-oriented political platform and to build momentum in preparation for a snap election, his digital campaign has received extensive attention from the Canadian press. Through qualitative content analysis of his videos and news media coverage of Singh’s activity on TikTok, this article questions how his TikTok profile thematically engages with social democratic politics within the context of the permanent campaign. Attention is directed toward how Singh employs TikTok’s features to establish his brand of left-wing populism and advocate against systematic social inequality to appeal to TikTok’s youthful demographic.

Introduction

TikTok is an important platform for political campaigns seeking to engage a predominantly younger public through digital advocacy. Shortly before the October 2019 Canadian election, Jagmeet Singh, the leader of the federal New Democratic Party (NDP) and the first member of a visible racial minority to lead a major Canadian federal political party, became a viral sensation on TikTok. Singh captured the attention of a Canadian public generally unfamiliar with TikTok when he posted a video promoting his social democratic political platform. The video, which featured the “Nope/Yup” meme inspired by rapper E-40’s song, “Choices,” went viral on social media, accumulating over 174,000 views and 7,000 user comments within 3 days (Bañares, 2019). Lip syncing to the lyrics of the song, Singh nods agreeingly and points to word bubbles displaying causes he supports, including “the environment” and “people,” while shaking his head in disagreement to word bubbles such as “big polluters” and “the rich and powerful.” In response to his TikTok popularity, Canadian media outlets reported on Singh’s unique approach to election campaigning, with The Toronto Star proclaiming Singh a “TikTok Superstar” (Patel, 2021, p. A7).

Singh’s TikTok showcases the performed authenticity (Enli, 2015) integral to his identity, social justice activism, and digital campaign. His digital advocacy showcases the charisma grounding a political persona already marked by stylish suits and fondness for bright-colored turbans at a time when party politics and communications in Canada are shaped by the concept of the permanent campaign, a continuous state of political lobbying for public support (McGrane, 2017). Other Canadian politicians and political parties from municipal to federal levels are on TikTok, but as of December 2022, Singh is the only active national party leader who uses the platform. His approximately 886,300 followers and 9.4 million likes on TikTok greatly surpass that of his other social media profiles (roughly 690,000 followers on Instagram and almost 580,000 Twitter followers). Singh cultivated a unique digital space on TikTok promoting his left-wing populist brand identity and the progressive causes he champions, such as wealth taxes, universal dental care, and affordable housing.

Is TikTok an effective political tool for Singh as a left-wing, social democratic Canadian politician attempting to authentically connect with a younger, diverse, progressive Canadian public that has generally not voted in elections but is vocal online about social justice issues? Utilizing a qualitative content analysis of Singh’s TikTok along with news media coverage of his profile, this article explores how Singh leverages TikTok as a part of his digital strategy to establish his populist brand advocating for social justice and to distinguish himself as a progressive candidate for a youthful constituency. The article will also examine how the Canadian press frames his TikTok for the larger public—an influential role since journalists maintain significant power in shaping and circulating political identities within public discourse. It begins with an overview of the relevant scholarship on TikTok, authenticity, and the permanent campaign to provide context for Singh’s use of TikTok for digital advocacy, followed by an outline of the methodology. The study moves into an analysis and discussion of the themes appearing in Singh’s TikTok (especially those appealing to youth), how Singh employs TikTok to exert ownership over his ethnic identity, the use of the platform’s affordances to circulate his progressive messaging, and how the political press framed the “failures” of Singh’s TikTok digital campaign.

Overview of Literature

TikTok’s Affordances and Memetic Composure

Following its 2016 launch in China as Douyin, TikTok has grown since its global 2017 release and 2018 merger with lip-syncing application Musical.ly into one of the most popular social media platforms. As of October 2022, there are over 1 billion TikTok users globally; with over 100 million users in the United States, TikTok’s North American popularity continues to grow (Harwell, 2022). While the total number of TikTok users within Canada remains small in comparison to global figures, Toronto Metropolitan University’s Social Media Lab (Mai & Gruzd, 2022, p. 4 & 15) reported an 11% increase between 2020 and 2022 of Canadian adults with a TikTok account.

TikTok possesses unique features and affordances. Rather than encourage users to engage with the platform to follow the activities of their friends and family, TikTok’s default “For You” page presents content “algorithmically curated” based on users’ personal interests and prior viewing data (Zulli & Zulli, 2022, p. 1878). Previous visual-oriented social media platforms like Instagram urged users to cultivate a unique or distinguishable persona legitimized by the quantity of followers (Abidin, 2021). The platform dynamics of TikTok conversely incite users to develop performative videos that strive to incorporate viral characteristics or memes to gain and maintain platform visibility (Abidin, 2021; Zulli & Zulli, 2022).

TikTok videos are a testament to the power of memes and memetic text in digital culture, easily generated intertextual entities whose vast circulation in mediascapes encourages users to collectively participate in shaping the dynamics of public and political discourse (Milner, 2016; Zulli & Zulli, 2022). The format has adapted to technological shifts in mobile media and is a popular form of expression on TikTok articulated through the platform’s features like musical selection, lip-syncing, split screens, duets, filters, and audio settings (Zeng & Abidin, 2021). The interactive characteristics, technological affordances, and user habits of TikTok facilitate a “platform vernacular” (Gibbs et al., 2015), a unique style of communication that encourages content creation on topics like social justice that is performative, satirical, and vulnerable (Boffone, 2022, p. 6; Literat et al., 2022, p. 5). The platform vernacular of TikTok is evident in content created by activist figures like Singh, since as Serrano et al. (2020, p. 264) argue, “every TikTok user is a performer who externalizes personal political opinion via an audiovisual act, with political communication becoming a far more interactive experience than on YouTube or Instagram.” A form of digital advocacy that promotes or reacts against specific causes, policies, or positions in political discourse (Johansson & Scaramuzzino, 2019), TikTok provides activists with a platform to pursue collective action and influence public opinion in a more immediate manner than previous local organizing (Abidin, 2021). TikTok videos thereby function as highly interactive, memetic cultural texts enabling users to identify with and participate in protests and social movements at the local, national, and international spheres on issues including racial injustice, anti-caste activism, police brutality, and climate activism (Hautea et al., 2021; Literat et al., 2022; Sadler, 2022; Subramanian, 2021).

Authenticity, Celebrity, and Influencers in Political Communication

The public presentation of Singh as an “authentic politician” (Enli, 2015, p. 110) and his playful use of TikTok is situated within larger discussions of authenticity, celebrity, and influencers in political communication on social media (Barta & Andalibi, 2021; Luebke, 2021; Luebke & Engelmann, 2022). Authenticity is a challenging notion to define, and scholarship pertaining to political communication has approached the concept as an imaginary ideal mediating a politician’s “real” or “true” personality for strategic gain in electoral campaigns (Dumitrica, 2014; Gaden & Dumitrica, 2015). Although the demand for politicians to appear authentic to garner votes is not a new phenomenon, social media platforms grant political leaders like Singh with a dynamic space “where authenticity is simultaneously promised, demanded, and disputed” (Shane, 2018, p. 3). The performative use of social media for political communication, such as the sharing of private information and personal photographs, fosters a constructed intimacy between politicians and their followers (Dumitrica, 2014). Enli (2015) conceptualizes performed authenticity as a three-step strategy undertaken by politicians promoting themselves as genuine to their inner identity through appearing spontaneous, intimate, and consistent in their public endeavors on social media to gain the trust of followers (Enli & Rosenberg, 2018, p. 3). This is a tactic commonly practiced by populist politicians since their “outsider” status challenging the hegemony of the governing political party enhances their apparent authenticity and trustworthiness (Enli & Rosenberg, 2018; Santamaría, 2021). Identifying the symbiotic relationship between journalistic media, political figures, and the public, Luebke (2021, p. 647) defines political authenticity as a “multidimensional” social construction that is “performed, mediated, and perceived” based upon aspects of “intimacy,” “ordinariness,” “immediacy,” and “consistency.” These dimensions shape how the media evaluates performances of authentic political identities on social media, which, in turn, influences the public’s perception (Luebke, 2021, p. 647). Acknowledging how politicians are the product of communication specialists, Serazio (2017) examines the role of political consultants in marketing a brand image for political candidates, which conceals the labor involved in constructing the performance of authenticity.

Social media has also intensified the dynamics shaping the phenomenon of celebrity politicians (Lalancette & Raynauld, 2019; Street, 2018). Street (2018) argues that “political attractiveness,” referring to performances of authenticity and style, are critical factors in how celebrity politicians like Singh engage with followers on social media platforms. Visual-based social media platforms “collapse the distance” between celebrity politicians and voters; posting visual content that mediates an authentic “realness” enables politicians to accumulate social capital for political gain (Zulli & Towner, 2021, p. 3).

Authenticity is also a critical component shaping the reception of “influencers,” individuals who have achieved a form of celebrity on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok by creating content for followers (Abidin, 2021; van Driel & Dumitrica, 2021). However, the power of the political influencer is relatively under-researched (Casero-Ripollés, 2020). Studies on political influencers have predominantly reflected two major themes. The first perspective focuses on how private citizens have utilized platforms like TikTok to circulate information and contest mainstream media coverage to sway public opinion and digitally advocate for social movements (Hautea et al., 2021; Literat et al., 2022; Vijay & Gekker, 2021). Lewis (2018, p. 17) argues that these influencers often possess institutional affiliations, but these connections are deliberately downplayed to underscore their relatability. The second perspective addresses how politicians utilize social media platforms to extend the influence of their authority (Blassnig et al., 2020; Santamaría, 2021). Politicians on TikTok are an under-researched area. While Singh represents the second perspective, his TikTok also deemphasizes his institutional role as NDP leader in favor of content advocating for social justice issues like affordable housing and universal dental care central to progressive social movements. Singh’s TikTok raises interesting questions pertaining to how politicians—especially those belonging to historically underrepresented communities in a predominantly White institution—build a singular brand through appearing authentic and relatable without the constraining filters of the press or political party.

TikTok as Social Media Strategy for the Permanent Campaign in Canada

Within these contexts of digital advocacy, authenticity, and social media culture, Singh’s TikTok must be understood within the conceptual framework of the permanent campaign, referring to the gradual erosion of the formerly distinct boundaries between governance and campaigning. Permanent campaigning is a competitive approach to governance where political parties and politicians (acting in concordance with their strategists and communications staff) apply campaign tactics to the everyday practice of governing (Marland et al., 2017, pp. 3–5). The NDP was extremely hesitant to professionalize their organizational structure to the demands of the permanent campaign (McGrane, 2017, p. 147). Prompted by a disastrous result in the 2000 Canadian federal election, the NDP charted a slow transition of professionalization, gradually removing grassroots organizers and volunteers in favor of hiring digital consultants and public relations strategists. Following their transition to what McGrane (2019, pp. 9–12) refers to as “postmodern campaign tactics,” the NDP reoriented its public identity by aligning the party’s image with the personal and political brand of the leader, a tactic reflected by Singh’s TikTok.

Social media is an important aspect of a cohesive permanent campaign strategy, especially since advertisements circulating through legacy media typically only run during election periods. The NDP has concentrated on social media advertising and digital organizing as part of their permanent campaign over the past decade. Prior to the August announcement of the 2021 Canadian federal election, 11 candidates had established TikTok profiles with 8 of those accounts belonging to NDP candidates. The party’s embrace of TikTok is a testament to the platform’s popularity among Canadian users, of whom 50% are in the 16–24 years age range. It also reveals the digital investment by the NDP to capitalize on the probability that those interacting with Singh’s social democratic videos will translate to NDP votes in future elections, regardless of who is leading the party (Leung, 2021). Connecting with younger demographics on platforms like TikTok is integral for Singh’s permanent campaign, since as Literat and Kligler-Vilenchik (2021, p. 2) contend, “while only a subset of youth are active in institutional political spaces, many are negotiating their relations to the political realm by contextualizing it within areas salient to them—including their popular culture interests.” Analyzing Singh’s TikTok provides insights into how he continues the movement of activists engaging with the platform vernacular of TikTok to advocate for social justice to ultimately achieve electoral success.

Methodology

A qualitative content analysis was conducted to categorize data from Singh’s TikTok to support close readings about the visual construction of his videos as cultural texts. A qualitative content analysis on the videos posted to Singh’s TikTok profile demonstrates how the symbolic “elements of a text refer to the wider cultural context” (Rose, 2012, p. 85). Braun and Clarke’s (2006) framework on thematic analysis was used to guide the qualitative coding of Singh’s TikTok. Defining a theme as the elements within the collected data that represent patterns of advanced meanings, Braun and Clark’s six-step overview (acquainting with collected data; determining codes; detecting themes; re-examining themes; classifying themes; conducting analysis) was applied to thematically code the results of the qualitative content analysis.

A total of 108 posts by Singh to TikTok were archived and coded as the sample for the qualitative content analysis. 16 August 2019 was selected as the sample’s start date since that was when Singh made his first post on TikTok. The end date of 17 October 2021 was selected because this was Singh’s only post commenting on the results of the 2021 federal election.

Print media serves as a bridge between Singh’s TikTok messaging and the large number of Canadians who are not on TikTok. To understand how his profile was framed by the print press, a qualitative content analysis was also conducted on print news coverage of Singh’s TikTok using three English-language Canadian newspapers, The Toronto Star, the National Post, and The Globe and Mail. The search terms “Jagmeet Singh” and “TikTok” were used to collect news articles posted on Factiva from 16 August 2019 to 17 October 2021. This sampling period was selected to match the timeframe of the TikTok data collection. After scanning for duplicates, a total of 58 articles were included in the qualitative content analysis.

Qualitative content analysis of both Singh’s TikTok and newspaper coverage was individually conducted using Braun and Clark’s six-step overview. The criteria for both samples was drafted and adjusted to ensure accuracy during the first three reads. The coding information was entered into separate Excel spreadsheets during the fourth and final read of the sample data. For Singh’s TikTok, information categories included the date the video was posted, the number of likes, views, and comments, use of official languages, audio sounds, hashtags and video description, and a summary of the video. Next Singh’s videos were coded as to whether they addressed a “personal” or “political” topic and were then broken down into 18 sub-topics. For the qualitative content analysis on press coverage of Singh’s TikTok, coding information was also collected in a separate spreadsheet consisting of the article title, date published, publication, author(s), and a brief abstract. Braun and Clark’s six-step overview was also used to determine the coding criteria with the topics adjusted to reflect the research questions pertaining to this aspect of the sample. Topics identified for the coding included whether the press coverage discussed Singh in relation to the topics identified on his TikTok, the NDP’s advertising strategy, how the press framed the youth vote, sources cited in news reports, and comparisons of Singh’s campaign strategy to his federal counterparts.

The methodological approach to this research raised reflexive concerns. At times it was difficult to clearly distinguish topics during the coding for the qualitative content analysis, particularly since many of Singh’s videos are visually complex. The coding was inductively derived and represents a reading of the sample from the perspective of a White academic writing from a position of power and privilege, particularly regarding issues of identity and representation in social and political institutions.

Analysis

Through the coding process, four significant themes were identified addressing the core research questions of this study: (a) how does Singh, as a progressive politician, utilize TikTok to connect and mobilize young voters; and (b) how do journalists frame Singh’s TikTok to the Canadian public? The four themes emerging from the coding process are igniting the youth vote on TikTok, branding left-wing populism in the permanent campaign, ethnic identity ownership and social justice advocacy on TikTok, and the framing of TikTok as a campaign “failure.”

Igniting the Youth Vote

Singh is collectively cited as the most likable federal party leader in Canada, and the following he has built through TikTok represents his genuine ability to connect with the public, a strategy that crossed media boundaries and caught the attention of Canada’s print journalists. His playful persona, likability, and celebrity status on TikTok were the dominant characteristics used by journalists to describe Singh’s appeal to young voters emerging from the qualitative content analysis on Singh’s press coverage. Written for a public unfamiliar with TikTok, one example from The Toronto Star alludes to the future possibilities of the platform for digital campaigning through the strategic use of expert commentary. Singh’s use of TikTok is compared with the highly successful mobilization of social media platforms to engage youth during Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Another example continues this optimistic framing by referencing Singh’s platform virality: “He may eventually grow into a leader which could attract a newer generation of voters, evidenced by his recent Tik Tok video where he happily longboards to the Fleetwood Mac song ‘Dream’” (Collenette, 2020). This framing of TikTok as an effective tool for Singh to reach young voters in a manner authentic to his engaging persona was the primary message communicated by the press to a public presumed to be unfamiliar with the platform.

However, this framing did not correlate to the people Singh interacts with on TikTok. The lone exception is his take on the “Alors on Danse” trend, his most popular TikTok video with over 8 million views. Using the green-screen function, Singh appears in front of a group of young adults swaying in a boastful manner to text below that reads, “When they say young people don’t vote but you know they’re going to make history in the next election” (Singh, 2021d). The reference to achieving history is notably vague; it is unclear whether he is alluding to a potentially record number of youth voting for the NDP, or that the youth vote will contribute to electing the first person of color as Prime Minister, or both. This TikTok was cited by the press as symbolic of the NDP’s campaign strategy of investing in Singh’s likability, visibility, and celebrity on social media to potentially garner the youth vote in the 2021 federal election. It demonstrates Singh’s self-awareness over how his presence on the platform was perceived by the press and other intermediaries as catering to the type of performative populist celebrity politics that has become a dominant practice in the past decade (Street, 2018).

Aside from his “Alors on Danse” TikTok, Singh makes very little reference to young voters—or even youth more broadly—in his videos. TikTok is a platform with a youthful user group, but there is a disconnect between the press framing and videos where he is not tailoring content to build social connections. One direct address video depicts Singh congratulating the class of 2021 and offering vague advice about treating each other with respect. Another video consists of raw, unedited footage of Singh dancing in Montreal with popular content creator/dancer Enola Bedard (who is in her early twenties) to celebrate “#InternationalDanceDay.” These videos are Singh’s only reference to youth on TikTok. He frequently addresses topics like affordable housing and accessible tuition but does not frame them as issues that disproportionally affect younger, often socioeconomically marginalized demographics. Nor does Singh use any of TikTok’s interactive features, like duets or stitches, to connect with young people on the platform. The overall lack of engagement with youth on the platform is notably striking when considered within the framing mediated by news coverage on Singh’s TikTok and the virality of the “Alors on Danse” video. Rather than interact with youth to connect their struggles to NDP policy commitments, Singh is relying upon the virality and memetic affordances of TikTok for his political messaging to reach those users who may be interested in social justice movements. This lack of personal interaction reaffirms Zulli and Zulli’s (2022) argument that TikTok’s affordances deemphasize social connections in favor of creating content that utilizes the platform’s replicable features, but this trend in Singh’s TikTok may be a missed opportunity to foster allegiances with potential young voters.

Singh’s TikTok videos therefore are especially dependent on the use of hashtags, particularly those associated with viral trends, to circulate his progressive messaging to platform users. When Singh was developing his TikTok following under the guidance of his social media director Nader Mohamed (Burke, 2019), slightly over half (n = 25) of the first 47 videos posted to his profile were tagged with either one, or a combination of, the hashtags #foryoupage,” “#foryou,” “#fyp,” “#foru.” As Hautea et al. (2021, p. 5) identify in their research on climate activism on TikTok, it is common for users to attach an extensive mixture of hashtags to their posts to appeal to the mystical nature of the algorithm. The three TikToks Singh posted prior to the 2019 federal election utilized the platform’s affordances to circulate the NDP’s social justice messaging through the tagging of videos with #elxn43, the official hashtag for the 43rd Canadian federal election. Although only approximately 9% of the Canadian population between the ages of 16–64 years had downloaded the platform at this time, TikTok content tagged with #elxn43 generated over 5 million views (Brown, 2020). The use of hashtags is viewed as a tactic to connect Singh’s TikTok videos to trending hashtags on the platform for increased visibility of his social justice messaging to the platform’s younger demographics.

Branding Left-Wing Populism in the Permanent Campaign

Singh’s TikTok promotes his brand identity embracing left-wing populism, defined as a compassionate, people-centric discursive articulation aiming to challenge the emotionless elitism of the hegemonic structure by prioritizing social justice and community action (Mouffe, 2018; Santamaría, 2021). The progressive political mandate and left-wing populism promoted by Singh on TikTok was a second major theme that emerged from the analysis of his videos and news coverage. His TikTok videos engage with left-wing soundbites like “fight for people” and “tax the rich” evoking a social democratic political platform associated with other leftist populist movements and politicians on social media (Santamaría, 2021).

The videos promoting Singh’s progressive agenda are the posts that more extensively utilize TikTok’s sound and video effects capabilities to achieve viral circulation. In one example, Singh incorporates the popular memetic audio “You know I’m your type, right?” from the song “Indigo” by Niki. An empty airplane seat branded with the headrest cover labeled “Jagmeet Singh” (with the NDP logo underneath the name in a significantly smaller font) is first shown accompanied by text rhetorically asking, “If you like someone who’s going to fight for. . .” as campaign issues defining the NDP party platform pop up on the screen, including “pharmacare,” “affordable” housing,” “lower cell phone bills,” “real climate action.” “dentalcare,” “electoral reform,” and taxing the super rich.” As the text block evaporates, Singh appears on screen, sits in the branded airplane seat, and lip-syncs to the audio “You know I’m your type, right?” (Singh, 2019a). Another example depicts Singh leading a small group of supporters performing the hand moments to the beat of Hoàng Read’s song “The Magic Bomb” while block text appears advocating “Some things we absolutely need to do” including “tax the ultra rich,” “invest in Health Care that covers you from head to toe,” and “fight the climate crisis” (Singh, 2021e). The inclusion of environmental issues in these videos incorporating trending memetic audio and dances is intended to appeal to Gen Z TikTokers, the colloquial term to describe those born between the late 1990s and mid-2010s, who are vocal on the platform about the “intergenerational injustice” escalating the climate crisis (Zeng & Abidin, 2021, p. 2468). These videos reflect Abidin’s (2021) argument that the platform dynamics of TikTok prompt users to develop performative videos that strive to incorporate viral characteristics or memes to maintain visibility. In these videos Singh appears notably relaxed and spontaneous, dressed in extremely casual clothing connoting characteristics of “performed authenticity” (Enli, 2015). The unpolished nature of these TikToks imply Singh’s videos are created in an “impulsive” manner to engage with viral trends before they become outdated, which increases the possibility of his progressive messaging reaching users’ “For You” page. However, the use of trending audio, greenscreens, and dances in Singh’s TikToks at times feels almost too casual, too extemporaneous, too informal, creating a striking difference between the seriousness of social justice issues discussed, his institutional affiliation, and the playful juvenility of the memetic forms. This dissonance accounts for the sentiment expressed by local candidates and canvassers in the NDP’s Campaign Debrief Report (Campaign Review Committee, 2021, p. 10) that Singh’s TikTok gained him “notoriety” for appearing “less serious” than his competitors.

Comparable to the theme associating his TikTok as building innovative connections with young voters, Singh’s emphasis on “tax on the rich” was framed by the press coverage as a left-wing populist mandate to appeal to disenfranchised youth on TikTok. One notable article from the National Post makes this connection by incorporating commentary from Singh and political pollsters:

The federal NDP are heading into the next election betting their strategy to target the “ultrarich” will resonate with younger voters . . . Singh said he is behind most of his TikTok videos, since “it’s a platform I really understand.” It’s also a platform where hashtags like #eattherich and #abolishbillionaires proliferate, and those posters and viewers would seem to be receptive to the NDP’s policies . . . To what extent hashtags translate into political support isn’t exactly quantifiable, but that kind of messaging is more likely to resonate with younger voters, pollsters say. (Karadeglija, 2021b)

This example is noteworthy because it addresses the trend emerging from Singh’s TikTok where viral memes and audio are used to circulate sound-bites of left-wing populism aiming to combat wealth inequality and intergenerational injustice. Articles frequently identified that Singh’s challenge was to sway young voters disenfranchised by the “political elite” of the governing Liberal party and their lax tax policies and government bailouts for billionaires and large corporations. This coverage also presented Singh’s progressive mandate as one that would appeal to young voters who may not achieve the same standard of living as their parents. TikTok was framed as an appropriate platform for Singh to connect left-wing populism with young users already engaging in content critical of topics like wealth inequality and the climate crisis, issues often blamed on the actions of previous generations.

This discursive schema emphasized by the press coverage was also evident in Singh’s TikToks circulating his progressive ideals through viral mimetic trends “blasting” Trudeau’s Liberal government. Performing the popular pouring water meme, one TikTok example depicts Singh emptying a jug of water into a glass labeled “Justin Trudeau’s Empty Words” while a second glass marked as “Justin Trudeau’s Actions” remains empty. The video is accompanied by the description, “Seriously though PM Trudeau says a lot of pretty words but he doesn’t back them up with real action. People deserve better. I got your back #foryou” (Singh, 2020b). Another example incorporated the “Laughing to the Bank” performative meme. Through the TikTok sound “stop using this for bad takes bozos—ale” (which is a sped-up edit of “Laughing to the Bank” by Chief Keef created by a TikToker), users sarcastically comment on a situation through text while laughing into their hands and lip-syncing to the “ha” in the audio’s beat. In Singh’s use of this widespread TikTok meme, a red text box reads: “Justin Trudeau when he” with gray text boxes appearing underneath throughout the 15-s video (“Promises to do something But does the opposite”; “Promises Pharmacare during the election but votes against in parliament”; Promises tax fairness but votes against taxing the ultra rich”; Promises to electoral reform but doesn’t change anything”; “Promises to fight the climate crisis but buys a pipeline”; Singh, 2021c). Tapping into generational disenfranchisement in videos advocating for progressive social change while highlighting the policy failures of Trudeau as symbolic of the political elite, these two examples demonstrate how Singh is integrating TikTok’s features into a core component of the NDP’s digital permanent campaign strategy (McGrane, 2017). The consistency of this theme in Singh’s TikTok and his press coverage speaks of the NDP’s status in the House of Commons as both advocate and “kingmaker.” Within the Canadian parliamentary system, there is instability when a minority government (such as Trudeau’s Liberals) does not control the majority of votes in the House of Commons. In this political landscape, parties like Singh’s NDP must maintain a permanent campaign in case a “snap election” is called, which happened in 2021. Singh’s TikTok strategically employs the platform’s features and affordances to apply public pressure on the governing political elite while ensuring his political message maintains platform visibility.

Ethnic Identity Ownership and Social Justice Advocacy on TikTok

Abridging his personal identity and political persona into a singular brand is a core aspect of Singh’s use of TikTok. Singh’s TikTok exemplifies what Kreiss et al. (2020, p. 2) refer to as “identity ownership,” a process in which “political leaders and candidates use media to construct and convey their social identities, and therefore their political identities, and those of the groups of constituents they seek to represent, not just information about the policies they will pursue.” Singh’s racialized and ethnic identity as a practicing Sikh who wears a turban was a central focus in media coverage during both his 2017 leadership campaign and the 2019 federal election, revealing the continued prevalence of systemic racism in Canadian public discourse. TikTok provides Singh with a valuable platform to express how these aspects of his identity inform his persona and brand, such as his video where he directly addresses the user and reclaims power over his first name by correcting mispronunciations. In another video, Singh teaches users the Sikh warrior knot hairstyle held in place with a kanga that was taught to him by his mother. Singh also created a second video on Sikh hairstyles in French, one of Canada’s two official languages. This TikTok is one of only six videos featuring French dialogue. The lack of French content is not unique to Singh’s TikTok and is reflective of the regional and linguistic differences in Canadian politics, but what is noteworthy is the type of content Singh posted in French. There are only two TikToks duplicated in French—a June 2020 post to commemorate Pride Month, and the Sikh warrior hair knot video. This TikTok pertaining to his spiritual practice takes on greater significance when considered in the context of Quebec legislation passed in 2019 forbidding public servants from wearing religious symbols (Montpetit & Shingler, 2021). Singh’s wearing of a turban and videos discussing Sikh customs, visual symbols of his ethnic and religious identity often subject to racist commentary in public discourse, exemplify the political importance of conveying his social identity on TikTok to advocate for systematic change. Singh’s ownership of his identity demonstrates how he is using the platform to advocate for social movements that challenge the discrimination often experienced by historically underrepresented communities. Singh leverages TikTok as a “site of resistance” to challenge the hegemonic boundaries of electoral politics and prompt visible social change for representation in public culture (Storey, 2012).

Further blurring the distinctions between activist and federal party leader, Singh uses TikTok’s features to advocate for other historically underrepresented communities. Opposing racism and other forms of discrimination is celebrated as a commitment of the NDP; the party’s webpage promises that “New Democrats will always stand against hate in all its forms and work to end systemic injustice” (New Democratic Party [NDP], n.d.). Confronting “hate,” embracing “love,” and “celebrating who you are” are dominant motifs in the rhetoric of Singh’s TikTok videos pertaining to the theme of ethnic identity ownership and social justice. In a TikTok with then-MP for Nunavut Mumilaaq Qaqqaq, an Inuk woman, the pair twirl to the video’s music, “Tuktu Strut,” turning to showcase the NDP-branded parkas they are wearing (Singh, 2019b). “Tuktu Strut,” by Inuit artist PIQSIQ, is an example of throat singing. This audio heightens the visibility of the Inuit cultural practice previously marginalized and banned by the Canadian government during colonization that endured through the activism of Indigenous peoples. In a TikTok duet using the platform’s transition editing capabilities with Indigenous content creator James Jones (notoriouscree), Singh applauds Jones’s sharing of the spiritual importance of Indigenous hair styles. Singh shares his own experience and connection to his Sikh culture in the duet, with both users emphasizing through written text on the video “always be proud of who you are” (Singh, 2020a).

These TikTok videos are among Singh’s least viewed on the platform. However, Singh’s TikToks pertaining to themes of combating hate and celebrating personal heritage serve a critical purpose for digital advocacy. Indigenous TikTok content creators have utilized the platform to educate users on cultural practices like throat singing and hair braiding as “demonstrations of resilience” (Thrower, 2022). Singh curated a political message that draws attention to Indigenous resilience by using the platform’s audio features and editing capabilities, evoking Sadler’s (2022, p. 2) argument that “TikTok’s cultural power” can extend “how we communicate about change and progress through technology.” These videos express NDP anti-discriminatory policy commitments as visual rhetoric that can be easily circulated on TikTok to provide visibility for underrepresented identities not typically given the same attention by other politicians or the mainstream legacy media. Singh’s focus on Sikh and Indigenous cultures strengthens Jaramillo-Dent et al.’s (2022, p. 219) argument that TikTok users employ the platform to negotiate social injustices and challenge the politics of (in)visibility that have historically shaped representation in public discourse.

A further thematic aspect of his social justice advocacy, Singh also uses the platform to warn of the violence incited by hate groups in Canadian society. Singh’s two TikToks responding to the 6 January 2021 Capital riot in Washington, D.C. are notable examples of this practice. In the first video posted on 8 January 2021, Singh encourages users to sign the NDP’s petition calling for Trudeau to ban the Proud Boys and designate them as a terrorist group. Singh uses the style of direct address on TikTok to plead with users (with a hint of an echo effect in his voice): “We can’t let a hate group like the Proud Boys continue to operate in Canada. They need to be labelled as a terrorist organization and banned. Please sign our petition to get this group banned.” The link to the petition appears in a pop-up text box toward the end of the 13-s TikTok and is also accessible in the video description. Singh’s TikTok incorporates the “You have to” memetic trend, where TikTok users give motivational advice with the popular musical audio “A Moment Apart—ODESZA—Hannah_harpist,” as background music (Singh, 2021a). In the second video posted on 13 January 2021, Singh incorporates a media clip from the 2019 federal election and then utilizes the platform’s “editability affordances” (Literat et al., 2022, p. 8) to comment on his previous remarks. During the 2019 Canadian federal election, Singh was asked how he would work with US President Donald Trump if elected prime minister. He responded, “I hope he gets impeached before I get to speak to him” (Abedi, 2019). His response garnered national headlines and his comments were disregarded as a “joke” by journalists (Burke, 2019). In the media clip edited into the second TikTok, Singh is asked if he should be making jokes about a possible Trump impeachment and responds, “I wasn’t joking.” Singh then comments on this previous statement, again speaking directly to users (with no background audio), “1 year and 2 impeachments later, no, I’m still not joking” (Singh, 2021b). Singh used TikTok to protest Trump’s policies and supporters as rooted in White supremacy while critiquing his mainstream media coverage, which originally trivialized Singh’s objection to Trump. The media clip referring to Trump’s first impeachment represents what Literat et al. (2022, p. 8) argue is a common practice exercised by political influencers and TikTok users creating content on social demonstrations, “wherein news reports became semantic resources that can be drawn upon, quoted, and (re)combined to construct media critique.” TikTok’s editing capabilities enables Singh to utilize TikTok’s platform features to advocate for social justice in an audio-visual rhetorical style commonly used by political influencers that his official press briefings as party leader representing a hegemonic institution do not afford him.

Framing TikTok as a Campaign Failure

The NDP did not significantly improve their political standing in the 2021 federal election and the press framed this result as evidence that TikTok is not an effective digital campaign strategy, the fourth theme emerging from the analysis. Rather than sourcing and interviewing members of the public who may have voted for Singh because of his visibility on TikTok, the news instead deliberately framed Singh’s digital campaign as a failure for two reasons: he did not translate his authentic TikTok celebrity into youth votes, and it was a distraction concealing the lack of policy measures behind his progressive taglines. This framing was expressed by the National Post (Subramanya, 2021): “Rather than a carefully articulated, genuinely social democratic alternative, the NDP offered up TikTok videos of telegraphic Jagmeet Singh.” The positioning of Singh’s TikTok celebrity as evidence of his “social media popularity” was used by the press to distinguish platform users as separate and distinct from the general electorate without any consideration given to changing Canadian demographics and media usage.

The debrief following the 2015 Canadian federal election highlighted the strain between the campaign’s professionals and community volunteers regarding the allocation of resources and overall strategy (McGrane, 2017, pp. 147, 160–161). These internal tensions continue to plague the NDP, best illustrated by The Globe and Mail headline, “The NDP is strong on TikTok but weak on the ground.” Singh responded to criticism from members of his party highlighted by the press and acknowledged the lack of resources directed to local organizing. Defending the NDP’s financial resources allocated to TikTok (and echoing previous comments made about the platform), Singh argued in his post-election press conference (which was reproduced in press coverage), “I think it’s important to be able to reach out to people and using the tools that we have to connect with people where they are” (Karadeglija, 2021a). NDP campaign directors and spokespeople employed similar messaging supporting TikTok and the party’s overall campaign strategy when cited in reporting of the 2021 election, attempting to reframe the “campaign failure” as a long-term investment in digital outreach. The Toronto Star was the only newspaper to report on the results of a mock election conducted among 740,000 elementary and secondary students across Canada where Singh’s NDP formed the official opposition. The newspaper credited TikTok as the source of Singh’s popularity with students, and acknowledged the importance of the platform for digitized political campaigns centering social justice:

If there’s a glimpse of hope for the NDP in future federal elections, the seed has been sown among voters too young to vote now . . . The new platform TikTok became an important venue for engaging with Gen Z voters, and Singh was the only party leader with a TikTok account, which gave the NDP a clear advantage in translating Gen Z followers into young voters by engaging them on their preferred platform. (Keung, 2021)

Echoing a similar tone, party insiders argued through the press that Jack Layton’s 2011 triumph was the result of a decade of branding, public relations, and image management, insinuating that the long-term effects of Singh’s TikTok have yet to materialize (Macdonald, 2021). The NDP’s emphasis on the enduring impact of Singh’s TikTok investment highlights how digital advocacy for social reform is shaped by the authenticity of a leader’s public identity, but it takes time for this investment to pay dividends.

Discussion

This study examines how Singh, as a politician representing a social democratic platform, incorporates TikTok as a digital permanent campaign strategy to build rapport with a youthful Canadian public that traditionally has low participation rates in electoral politics. Singh showcases TikTok’s evolution from an entertainment platform into a digital campaign tool promoting social reform. Using TikTok to circulate his left-wing populist brand identity, Singh’s videos highlight hollow slogans like “tax the rich” and critique the hegemony of the governing political elite for serving the interests of large corporations at the expense of local communities. His videos serve as a form of digital advocacy visually circulating NDP anti-discriminatory policy measures, particularly in highlighting Indigenous issues and protesting hate groups. As a visible minority proudly displaying his ethnic identity and religious customs that visually distinguish him among a predominantly White institution, Singh requires innovative campaign measures. Owing to the platform’s features and affordances, TikTok enables Singh to penetrate digital mediascapes and brand himself without the confining frames imposed by the political press to court youth into joining progressive social movements.

Singh leverages TikTok to exert an identity as an authentic political influencer, especially since he downplays his institutional identity on the platform. Embodying an influencer identity on TikTok permits Singh to address issues like the Capital riots and Trump impeachment in a more performatively authentic (Enli, 2015) manner that is typically not evoked by federal leaders. He also utilizes the platform’s memetic features and affordances to maintain visibility in accordance with the demands of the permanent campaign model in Canadian politics. However, the lack of any direct engagement with policy issues and how these matters impact Canada’s young voters is a notable element emerging from the analysis of Singh’s TikTok videos. Singh’s frequent use of memetic content to circulate repetitive, vague, populist messaging demonstrates that TikTok is facilitating a stylistic shift in political communication prioritizing viral visibility for digital campaigning. The memetic form of Singh’s TikTok, consequently, has greater communicative power than the message. TikTok’s emphasis on virality makes it an ideal platform for a permanent campaign strategy since content is intentionally constructed by Singh and his digital communications staff to attract user attention and maintain visibility in preparation for a possible snap election. By prioritizing populist virality over the content of the message, Singh’s TikTok connotes a posturing for visibility, which may be why other federal political leaders have not embraced TikTok as part of their digital political communication strategy.

One major theme examined by this research is how Singh’s TikTok elevated his left-wing populist brand identity to the extent that his videos garnered the attention of the Canadian press. If he is a “TikTok superstar” (Patel, 2021, p. A7), bringing an innovative and refreshing approach to progressive digital campaigning that will inspire youth to vote, then why did the press frame Singh’s TikTok advocacy as a campaign failure when the NDP did not improve their political standing? Was the celebratory rhetoric praising Singh’s TikTok as a form of youth-outreach prior to the election establishing a frame that could be lazily applied by journalists to explain the NDP’s disappointing results? This judgemental framing reflects an emerging power struggle between legacy media and TikTok, challenging the press’s historical role as intermediaries between politicians and the public. Politicians like Singh can tailor performative, memetic TikTok content to appease the gatekeeping function of the platform’s algorithm, which can potentially challenge journalists’ power to inform public dialogue (Vázquez-Herrero et al., 2020). This conflict takes on greater significance since teens and young adults increasingly receive their news from TikTok, with older demographics relying upon print and television outlets (Casaletto, 2022; Matsa, 2022). The “failure” frame by print journalists is an ageist judgment on TikTok as a youth-centered platform that reduces the political and counter-hegemonic possibilities of TikTok’s affordances for digital campaigning.

This study adds a Canadian perspective to the growing literature analyzing digital advocacy and campaigning on TikTok (Del Rosso, 2021; Vijay & Gekker, 2021), and provides important insights for global scholars engaging in research on politicians fostering social justice on TikTok. The limitations of this research on Singh’s TikTok raise important issues for further study. Since the methodological focus of this study was qualitative content analysis, it did not address how platform users engaged with his videos. Interviews or focus groups with Canadian youth would help to understand how this demographic reacted to his digital advocacy and performed authenticity. Following the NDP’s disappointing results in the 2021 federal election, criticisms emerged on Twitter concerning how party resources were primarily allocated to financing Singh’s personal brand on social media (Fawcett, 2021). Future research should utilize a cross-platform analysis to illuminate how Singh’s TikTok is discussed within public conversations in Canada across different social and legacy media networks, which all contribute to how political leaders circulate and shape civic discourse. The findings of this research underscore the need for further monitoring of Singh and the NDP’s digital advocacy on TikTok to determine if this is an investment that takes time to yield progress on social justice issues. TikTok is a nimble technology enabling Singh to respond directly to emerging issues by utilizing the platform’s unique features and affordances to reach users, yet its influence on progressive political movements requires a longitudinal study to understand TikTok’s impact for promoting systematic change in electoral politics.