“Hey Jared! POTUS wants to trademark/own rights to below.” One of the two taglines in the email to Jared Kushner, the former senior advisor to President Donald Trump, was “Rigged Election!”According to documents provided to the January 6 Committee, Kushner forwarded the email from former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino to a small group of Trump campaign staff, with this simple directive: “Guys - can we do ASAP please?”A search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office suggests it went nowhere. And experts in intellectual property believe it's unlikely Trump could have claimed the sole right to the line.Still, entrepreneurs on Amazon.com sell bumper stickers with the words Rigged Elections along with this sales pitch: “The courts have said there was no rigging but you can peacefully express your opinion and First Amendment Rights.” Order now.You won't find the line “Rigged Elections!” in Industry Canada's trademark database, either. But thankfully, you'll find trademarks belonging to Elections Canada. You'll also find trademarks for “Ford Nation” and “For the People” belonging to Douglas Robert Ford. And you'll find zingers like “Make Justin Trudeau A Drama Teacher Again” filed in 2019 and abandoned three years later.Despite its popularity, you won't find a trademark for the line F*ck Trudeau. But there are plenty of flags, t-shirts, bumper stickers, and toilet accessories with the line for sale on Amazon.ca. According to one vendor, it's a flag with “a strong symbolic meaning” which “expresses the people's desire for a better country.” Not to mention that “the exquisite and bright flag can easily attract passers-by or neighbours”.I'm all for free speech and free enterprise intersecting. But it becomes problematic when it disrespects what we should all hold dear, or worse when it runs the risk of undermining democratic institutions.Take the recent case of a Victoria resident who chose to use his Oath of Citizenship ceremony to display his anger at the Prime Minister by hanging a F*ck Trudeau flag before being told to take it down. The stunt gave him fifteen minutes of fame, amplified by social media and sympathetic online publications. He's certainly free to make his feelings known, but there are circumstances when some formality is required. Compared to the deterioration in civility in US politics - painfully obvious to anyone watching the recent State of the Union address -, Canada's political discourse remains rather civil. But, as the anger and name-calling increase, it's conceivable that politicians here might be inspired by Marjorie Taylor-Greene.More concerning is when anger and suspicion are captured in catchy slogans which, when repeated and amplified, becomes a deep belief. Like Rigged Elections!If Canada is indeed broken, it would not be a leap to claim that the electoral process is part of the brokenness.There are legitimate reasons to be concerned about Chinese interference in Canadian elections. It's troubling to learn from top-secret CSIS documents that China worked to defeat certain Conservative candidates to ensure the return of a minority Liberal government in 2021. Predictably, this prompted the leader of the Official Opposition to claim that “Trudeau is perfectly happy to let a foreign authoritarian government interfere in our elections as long as they're helping him”.He's playing to his supporters, and with fire.Trust in the Canadian electoral system is not exactly high to begin with. According to a survey of 1,502 Canadians conducted last month by The Logit Group, 46% of Canadians trust the Canadian electoral system. This percentage drops to 39% in the Prairies, and 40% among Millennials. By contrast, trust in the healthcare system and the military is at 58% and 57% respectively.Trust in Canada's democratic institutions is essential to protect democracy. This includes safeguarding our elections by strengthening our electoral system against cyber and other threats.It's too important to become the stuff of partisan politics, taglines, and bumper stickers.Éric Blais is the president of Headspace Marketing in Toronto. He has helped build brands for over 35 years and is a frequent commentator on political marketing, most recently on CBC's Power & Politics.