Is this federal election campaign the nastiest ever?

So asked a CBC.ca article this week, with the writer turning to Prof. Matthew Hayday for insight. Hayday, from the Department of History, cited two other campaigns he thought were better examples of “gutter politics”: 1917 and 1993.

“To me, those campaigns were far worse than anything we’ve seen in this election,” said Hayday.

Hayday studies many aspects of post-war Canadian history, including nationalism and identity politics, and the history of language policies and bilingualism in Canada. He also edited a book on Canada Day celebrations published in 2016.