Canadian voter turn out is dismal. Countless reasons potentially contribute to this phenomenon such as: education, background, economic status, disenchantment, and plain old apathy. The last American presidential campaign inspired disengaged citizens to finally take action and get involved in the political process. Psychology’s rule of participation states that people are more likely to support ideas or programs that they perceive they had a voice in creating. Obama certainly took advantage of this ideology.
The 2008 American presidential elections drastically changed traditional campaign strategies and tactics. Obama engaged the American public by *gasp asking them to participate in the political process and create change together. For the first time – ever perhaps – the American population was asked to join the political conversation. The traditional one-way conversation between a presidential candidate and the people, suddenly shifted into a two-way, mutually beneficial relationship. President Obama utilized multiple social media techniques that helped him to a) deliver his messages to a wider audience and b) better understand the needs of the American people. This new campaign strategy resulted in record voter turn out and a blast of mass political enthusiasm.
Was Stephen Harper taking notes from President Obama? Perhaps the success of Obama’s campaign helped Harper to view social media space as an opportunity to reach out and engage the Canadian people? Or maybe he just felt guilty for proroguing parliament for two months while he enjoyed an extended winter vacation? Either way, on March 16th, 2010 Harper created a forty-minute YouTube video, where he answered select questions from the Canadian people. Harper wanted to reach a new audience and ‘put democracy into action.’ The problem is, it’s not really democracy when only a select few questions are being included in the conversation. The show was not engaging because it was not real – time, and there was zero interaction with the prime minister and the Canadian people. He pre-chose questions and people could not answer or rebut his responses. Doesn’t sound like social media to me.
The foundation of the project makes sense; Harper wants to reach a new audience in a fresh and innovative way. He thought he could utilize a new means of communication to tap into and engage the Canadian people. Unfortunately, he missed the mark. Canada Talks YouTube channel is like traditional media on a social media platform. The episode seemed contrived, planned, and artificial. There was definitely no ‘social’ interaction with the Canadian public. Harpers simply moved his regular, boring and old fashioned methods to YouTube.
The conservative government better take the feedback it’s received from this project and make the necessary changes to reach out and engage Canada in a more open and free conversation. Otherwise, there is no doubt that the Liberals and NDP will swoop into social media land and start engaging Canadians the right way. It’s about time we play a more active role in our governmental process.
You can check out Harpers's pathetic attempt at social media below:
Want to see what other active social media guru's think? Check out these blogs - Kaitlynn, Zack, Robyn & Kathleen
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You make some excellent points about the weaknesses of this social media campaign. It clearly could have been done better, and ultimately failed to leverage the true abilities of social media.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you like about the campaign? I liked how they tried. The Conservative Party is at least out there, doing something that Canadian politics has never seen before. Sure they could have done it better ... but do they get any points for trying? Maybe they'll do it better next time. Maybe they won't.
Great insight Sarah. I think its notable that the Conservative government is utilizing social media to reach out to voters.
ReplyDeleteI agree that listening to feedback is crucial to its future success. It didn't get it right the first time, but social media is all about learning and improvements!
I think your comparison to Obama highlights an important fact - it has been done and can be done. Perhaps just not my our current Canadian administration so does that not create an interesting opportunity for opposition parties if they rise to the challenge? I think so.
ReplyDeleteWhat is interesting about the American election is that while the youth voter turnout was high, the voter turnout for the older dempgraphic was low. So the overall voter turnout remained the same.
ReplyDeleteBut I think highlighting social media as an effective tool for engaging the youth demographic is important. If traditional modes of communication are ineffective at reaching this audience, why not try a new medium?