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Only one of Canada’s major party leaders is paying for Twitter’s blue check mark so far

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet.

Among Canada’s four biggest political party leaders, only one has opted to pay for the Twitter blue verification check mark. 

On Thursday, Twitter began purging the signature blue check marks on accounts after announcing last month that it would begin winding down its legacy verified program. Users who have the verified check would lose them unless they subscribe to Twitter’s new Blue service. 

Under the new program, users can opt-in to pay for a subscription that adds a blue checkmark to their account for CAD $10/month or $105/year. Subscribers will also get access to select features, such as editing tweets and the ability to write longer tweets 

So far, it appears Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre is the only major party leader paying for the service as he still has his blue check mark as of Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh and Yves-François Blanchet, leader of Bloc Québécois no longer have their blue checks. However, Trudeau’s account has a grey check mark because it is labelled as a verified government account.

In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford doesn’t have his check anymore but Toronto’s acting and deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie has hers as of Thursday afternoon. 

READ MORE: CBC pauses Twitter activity after being labelled as ‘government-funded media’

Earlier this week, the CBC stopped using Twitter in response to the social media platform labelling the broadcaster as “government-funded.” 

“Our journalism is impartial and independent. To suggest otherwise is untrue,” the CBC said in one of its last tweets on Monday. 

The CBC’s accounts received the label shortly after Poilievre asked Twitter to label the broadcaster “to protect Canadians against misinformation and manipulation by state media.”

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