Mobilizing Affective Political Networks: The Role of Affect in Calls for a National Inquiry to Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women during the 2015 Canadian Federal Election

Abstract

Indigenous peoples of Canada have been expressing concern over the high rate of murdered and missing women in their communities for over a decade. Following the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) report which confirmed that Indigenous women are four times more likely to be murdered or kidnapped than other Canadians, these claims intensified into a broad social media campaign calling for a national inquiry into the matter. This campaign uses several hashtags but primarily one representing murdered and missing Indigenous women (#MMIW). As a result of 2015 federal election campaign promises, Canada's new Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, has begun the process of the requested national inquiry. This research examines election-related tweets containing #MMIW. This article seeks to interrogate this social media campaign during the election cycle through the lens of affect theory. What role does affect play in collective action claims making? What are the triggers generating affective responses from MMIW advocates during the 2015 Canadian federal election? A mixed-method content analysis reveals that anger, hope, and disgust are the most prominent affects conveyed in this campaign. Emotional triggers focus on incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper as an enemy to the cause and on memorial practices and events remembering the lost. Social networks develop cohesion through affective solidarity. The anger, hope, and disgust shared through this political frame convey the movement of activists who realized their hopes for change.