Mike Cassese / Reuters Netflix CEO Reed Hastings speaks during the launch of Netflix's streaming service in Canada, Toronto, Sept. 22, 2010. The company's recent dig at Ontario Premier Doug Ford's sex-ed policy is a sign that

Netflix Canada's recent foray into the politics of Ontario's sex education curriculum may be just the start of a new era of corporate activism, one marketing expert says. In a tweet Wednesday, the U.S.-based streaming service took a dig at the provincial government of Premier Doug Ford, which last summer suspended the province's existing sex-ed curriculum, temporarily reverting to the previous program which had been formulated in 1998.

since the Ontario sex-ed curriculum has gone back in time, you can "learn" about sex the way teens in the '90s did: all the American Pie movies are now on Netflix — Netflix Canada (@Netflix_CA) December 5, 2018

WATCH: The Reaction To Ford's Sex-Ed Curriculum Isn't Just Among Parents. Story Continues Below: The tweet proved wildly popular, being retweeted more than 8,600 times, but also proved controversial with some on social media who criticized the streaming service for taking a partisan political stance.

Wow, a corporation that thinks commenting on political issues is a good idea — Christopher J. Fries (@healthsociology) December 5, 2018

Yet this sort of thing will likely become more common in the future, says Monica LaBarge, an assistant professor of marketing at Queen's University's Smith School of Business. "For sure we've started increasingly to see — especially in the U.S. — more corporate activism around political topics," she said, adding that it's been "relatively unusual to see that in Canada." LaBarge believes this is a growing trend in part because consumers themselves are increasingly spending money on brands that they believe reflect their own values. Watch: What's new on Netflix Canada, December 2018 (story continues below)