Canadian comedian Rick Mercer is calling out the Conservative party for misusing his quote in a meme, which he calls "all fake."
In a now-deleted Facebook post, the Burnaby North Seymour Conservative Constituency Association posted a photo of Mercer's face with a quote that's meant to inspire young people to head to the ballot box: "Take 20 minutes out of your day and do what young people all around the word are dying to do. Vote Conservative."
Mercer did say most of the quote, except the sentiment was to encourage people to go out and vote period. In the original quote, he does not endorse any particular party.
His rant can be found on his website, which was written in March 2011.
On Tuesday, he tweeted at Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and his party, saying "Your candidate in Burnaby North Seymour is distributing a Meme on social media with my face and the words 'Vote Conservative' indicating it is a quote from me. Not True. All Fake. Please Stop."
It appears a post using the same quote and image of Mercer was uploaded by a B.C. online magazine, Canadian Family, on social media two days before the Burnaby North Seymour Conservative Constituency Association posted the contested version. The difference is the Canadian Family's post did not endorse any specific parties.
The post by the local Conservative constituency association first made its rounds online Sunday.
Someone brought it to Mercer's attention on social media, to which he responded that the post was "just a straight up fake by the candidate."
Conservative Burnaby North-Seymour candidate Heather Leung said she was not responsible for the post.
"The post and Facebook page had nothing to do with my campaign. I understand the post has now been deleted," Leung said in a statement to CTV News.
In a statement to CTV News, the Conservative Party of Canada said, “The post has been deleted. The individual who shared it is not involved on the local campaign.”
