Fun with Facebook

Last week, Election 2011 was all-a-Twitter, as Tamara Small writes over at the Shopping for Votes blog. But this week, it's Facebook's turn to be in the spotlight.  It's a big breakout for a social medium that's normally forbidden in government offices (I think that's correct; please let me know if I'm wrong about that.) But now that all the politicos have plunged into an election campaign, Facebook's very much in fashion. 

For instance, while Harper and Ignatieff may not have their one-on-one debate, they are duking it out in the contest for Facebook friends. Ignatieff's Facebook friends have now overtaken Harper's numbers -- 51,291 for the Liberal leader as of Wednesday afternoon, 46,624 for the Conservative leader. 

Meanwhile, we all know about the student removed from the rally because of her Facebook picture featuring  Ignatieff. And wasting no time, Ignatieff has now sent out an appeal for donations, titled: "The Danger of Being My Facebook Friend." (My thanks to Stephen Hui, at Straight.com, for printing out the text of the pitch, excerpted below.) 

That’s Stephen Harper’s Canada. Undemocratic. Disrespectful. And certainly going against our best Canadian traditions.

And it’s why I’m asking you to donate what you can right now — so we can leave it behind for good on May 2.

How Stephen Harper’s Conservatives decide to do a Facebook background check on everyone at their rallies, while ignoring the criminal past of a senior advisor like Bruce Carson is a mystery to me.

 And just to underline the point, Liberals have also put out this little animated feature too on YouTube:  

 

 

Comments

[Nadine Lumley]

I put all my video parody links I’ve collected over the last year and a half to do with making fun of Steve Harper into one place online. Loads of GOOD stuff here. Keep yo busy all weekend.
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?created&&note_id=206026462760618

[Rolf Auer]

"Harper Government Stifles Freedom of Speech" (article); this Facebook-stalking thing is part of a pattern going a long way back.

My federal politics blog: clearpolitics.wordpress dot com

(Click "About" re reading posts, or on my picture.)
@Rolf_Auer

[Ernie C]

How come no one is bitching about the price of gas? It's at $1.26 a liter! That's over $5 a gallon. And our dollar is stronger than the US dollar and they're not paying anywhere near what we're paying. This is ridiculous! Do we really believe the gov't cannot do something about this? Basically this is it, we have moron political parties that don't give a damn about the Canadian people and the Canadian people have given up hope and just sit home watching the adventures of Charlie Sheen. I feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone.....wait...I think I see Rod Serling just beyond the next sign post ahead.

[Cathy Payne]

I am glad someone isn't always outraged about stuff. A laugh can make an effective point. Sometimes more effective than the "sky is falling" outlook our Conservatives always see.

Even Conservative voters in defense of the leader point to the incompetance of others as justification for all the days Mr Harper spent with that guy who worked for him. They did catch Ms Guergis! Unfortunately those others, the RCMP, are the same guys who will deliver the law and order promises of Mr Harper. No wonder the leader of the RCMP Harper picked ended up in "retraining" in Colorado. There's a lot of crazy things going on.

People get offended all the time in life. Some deal with the offenses as they happen, but some plan ahead looking to avoid all situations that might mean they have to deal with any offense. No fish out of water moments for them. Some see that as strong and defend Mr Harper as a victim of others. Someone like myself sees it as weakness. Not weak for feeling the fear of uncontrolled events but the extreme lengths they go to to prevent anything from happening at all. That is where all the mess ups seem to happen.

Public perception of Mr Harper must be hard to control. He lost me when he claimed our Census was oppressive to women for asking about free housework we do and then explaining that the very Same State should be allowed to kill our citizens with a death penalty. Raw eye for an eye justice from the same group who terrorize us about housework questions? I find no comfort in that but Conservatives do. Holding both beliefs and seeming normal too makes humour all that's left to rebut the positions.

Silo arguments always work for Conservatives. They create the type of events the leader needs. But it doesn't get us a seat on the Security Council. And after the efforts to apologize to First Nations having a man in the PMO's Office who offended them is really pushing it. Apoligize first then begin anew? That's the problem for me.