Election 2008: The Internet has my Vote
In the future, elections will be won on the Internet via competing SNL digital shorts... or something like that. However, while Canadian politicians aren't (yet) ridiculous enough to fall on to the US radar, even our politicians recognize the value of weighing in on the Internet as well as traditional media streams.
Each party has a fairly decent website (if you're interested, Conservative, Green Party, Liberals, and NDP) but this is hardly where to go for critical, unbiased, or generally entertaining political content. Instead I'm trying some of these more clever sites to help me decide where to place my vote.
TheUndecided.ca is by far the best tool I've found so far in helping to actually make a decision in Tuesday's election. Like a personality test, the site helps you align your individual position on vital issues with those of a particular party.
By answering questions about key Canadian issues (accountability, childcare, decriminalization, families, fuel economy, healthcare, Kyoto, missile defense, political reform, same sex marriage, and sovereignty), this site will spit our your closest political match. The downside is that no party has all the answers, but this is a very interesting test to see if your political loyalty is in line with your personal values.
VoteEnvironment2008.ca and VoteforEnvironment.ca help to promote environmental issues as the basis for voting. The first is brought to you by David Suzuki, whom I for one trust as an environmental ambassador, and helps to clarify how each of the party platforms fits into the new green initiative. It also offers a lot of community-driven discussion about key environmental issues, without the added political jargon.
VoteForEnivronment.ca offers an ongoing breakdown of split vs. smart voting for the environment (right).
Anti-Harper Vote Swap (also see the less-biased Vote Swap Canada application) are controversial 'vote swap' projects that work to help avoid vote splitting by pairing up voters in different ridings. The voters then 'agree' to vote for each other's candidate of preference within their own riding.
This is a great idea; I live in Trinity-Spadina where I am confident Olivia Chow (NDP) will win whether I give her my vote or not. Using vote swapping, I could now offer my vote to say, a Green candidate in another riding. However the system relies on each voter's honesty/integrity - a risky venture, for sure. There's also the question of legality, although so far any challenge to these vote swaps has been unsuccessful.
AnyonebutHarper.ca is probably one of the best-known sites in this election. So we all know that Harper has his haters, and I don't think his new commitment to arts funding is going to swing any votes his way in my riding. But for those of you living in some of the more tenuous Conservative areas, this site is non-partisan and deserves a look if you're anti-Harper. By entering your postal code, you can see whether you live in a swing riding and - if so - who to vote for to strategically keep Harper out of government.
I couldn't find any similar sites dedicated to the other Candidates, although there is a strong Anti-Dion vibe on the pro-Conservative websites. I guess only Harper is special enough to deserve his own online anti-campaign.
Of course the blogosphere plays a huge role in generating discussion about the election, and as such will probably influence a few voters. The Kensington Debate I watched didn't help me, but it helped a fellow blogTO reader, so you never know. These Top 25 Political Blogs range from intellectual to insulting, but are generally offer some great entertainment value with a side of critical insight.
Western Standard looks at politics from around the world, but many articles have a definite Canadian focus. I was checking out "What Harper Needs To Do" most recently, but there are plenty of articles and comments about other issues like marijuana legalization, crime and the US election.
Canadian Cynic is a hilarious and more Canada-minded blog. The frank, sarcastic and openly anti-Conservative tone is pretty consistent, but also critically relevant. Being somewhat cynical myself, this site helps calm the nerves that certain candidates are getting on these days.
Finally, if you happen to be a decided voter, you can strut your political preference with a Digital Election Sign. These down-loadable signs can be attached to your email signature or web page, revealing your political alliance to the entire internet (maybe not such a great idea if you're a Liberal supporter in Toronto).
I still plan to postpone making any election decisions until Tuesday and even then, I'm still undecided about whether to go out and vote or sit at home on my computer. Maybe this'll help some one else decide.
Comments (36)
Thanks for this unique take on voting decision making.
If I still can't decide, think I will vote for the kitten! :)
Just thought i'd throw this here because it's an election post - i think elections canada is really desperate for volunteers. check the website and call em up, you can make like $100 to $200 bucks but the catch is you have to be available all day election day
Will those who use the Liberal digital lawn signs be susceptible to Denial of Service attacks or other web mischief/vandalism?
Olivia Chow's riding is far from a run away. The Liberal candidate is making it a two horse race.
Will Stephan Dion take a hike somewhere where he can learn to speak proper English and learn something about politics? This guy is a pathetic loser and then some!! He used to be a college professor and knows zip about what he wants for Canada, except to lead the country straight down the St. Lawrence river, like the former PM, namely Pierre Trudeau! Dion's Carbon Tax is just plain stupid and it doesn't surprise me that he can't see that!
Thanks Corina -- this is incredibly helpful. All those sites that get recommended by friends in one place.
Ditto on Alex. That kitty is doomed. You can see in his little kitty face that he knows it too.
They don't even like him in Quebec, so imagine how the rest of the country must feel. If he had half a brain, he's get out of politics and get a job where he has to keep his mouth shut! Yea, Harper will make him eat that kitty come election day!
I was surprised to find Layton wasn't matching Harper and Dion in terms of MySpace presence. And I don't know why none of the major parties seem to grasp that young people on computers respond far better to video than anything else.
What? No love for the Work Less or Animal Alliance Environment Voters Party Of Canada?
@ Chris Obrz: +1 the leaders/parties aren't really using new media as they should. They can reach further and faster if they just embraced the blogosphere and Interwebs better!
ahahahaha! i'm still laughing at that harper/kitty pic. i'm a big cat lover but that pic is just ridiculous for an election campaign.
I doubt very much if Layton stands a prayer in Hell to get any reasonable amount of votes to stand a chance of coming even close to being a competitor. We Ontarians learned a hard lesson with the born and raised in a Mansion, namely Bob Rae, who didn't know the first thing about the "working man", since he never worked a day in his life! BC learned the hard way, too, a long time ago that the NDP, who are backed by the Unions, cannot run a Province, let alone an entire country.
As for Stephan Dion, as the ads say: Not worth the Risk, so it's Stephen Harper, in spite of his butt kissing to Bush, who will take control, once again!
The undecided's tool is kind of wonky. Sometimes you can't even read the whole text of the points you have to choose from.
The Star has one as well, functions just like the undecided's.
Canadian Cynic? The one who told a grieving mother of a dead Canadian solider to eff off because she supported the Afghanistan war? The one who called Stephen Harper a "good little Jew boy"?
Be careful who you lie down with, Corina.
I live in Trinity Spadina too and it's far from a cakewalk for Olivia Chow. She only won by 2500 or so votes last time. It's always a close race between the Liberals and the NDP in this riding with the winner winning by only a couple thousand votes, if that.
@trouble... while I hardly think reference a site means I'm lying down with them, I happen to like Canadian Cynic. I like bloggers with the balls (if not the tact) to speak bluntly about issues, and I enjoy offensive humour.
I also think that grieving parents have no business in our military endeavours, and should [insert synonym more cheerful than f-off]
You didn't just reference the site, you endorsed it.
And I think grieving parents have as much right to offer opinions as anyone else on any matter whatsoever. And they deserve a modicum of respect, even when one disagrees with them.
"and I enjoy offensive humour"
Yeah, anti-Semitism is SUPER fun! Racists have balls! But it's not as much fun as slagging off grieving parents, eh Corina? As long as they're ... like ... funny, that's all that matters.
WTF has happened to blogto? Total nut cases and clueless twittering idiots writing for it now. It wasn't always like this, was it?
wow, reactionary! :) But to be clear, I was referring to the offensive humour that was the basis for my blog post originally - not the side bar brought up by 'trouble'.
Although i laugh at southpark everytime i watch it (arguably anti-semetic) - i don't think it makes me a nut case to find humour in poor taste or tactless remarks. I can see through the emotionally overidden hot-buttons to the point, which is probably why I can enjoy a blog like Canadian Cynic while some of you clearly can't.
The beauty of the internet is that it's not policed by moral sensitivities - huzzah for that :)
"which is probably why I can enjoy a blog like Canadian Cynic while some of you clearly can't."
That's because some of us have this thing called a moral compass. Stop being ironic. Start being a human being.
The ironic nature of human beings is that they don't all have the same moral compass, and yet will tell each other which way is right. Ok, I'm done being ironic :)
In totally unrelated news, Conservative communications director Ryan Sparrow is suspended for demeaning the father of a dead Canadian soldier.
I'm sure "fed up" was similarly disgusted and appalled by that... oooooh, look ... bright shiny thing!
Are we done here? Yeah, I think we're done here.
On the same topic, we felt the need to have a site that shows twitter activity for the five major Canadian political parties, all in one convenient place - complete with puffins and kitten petting action. Oh my.
If anyone is interested in listening to a review of the latest Canadian political events, without the media's spin, check out "Politics, Eh!". It's currently featured on the iTunes podcast page.
Thus spaketh the one called Trouble: "The one who called Stephen Harper a "good little Jew boy"?"
Trouble, perhaps your dishonesty keeps you self-satisfied but when you are making public attributions of statements in quotation marks, it behooves one to be accurate. CC is often vulgar and occasionally crosses the line but he never called Steve a good little jew boy. He did imply that harper had sold himself to the israel lobby. And Harper is a politician and like a good little water carrier for the American neocons he did indeed kiss up to the Canadian Jewish Congress and he has made it Canadian policy to support and make apologies for the Israeli government regardless of their outrageous acts. Measured responses and so forth. If you were to "trouble" yourself beyond making scare quotes and delve beyond the surface of things you might locate that rarest of substances, context. Like the context in which CC's comments regarding the late soldiers mom and what prompted CC's admittedly intemperate response. But context isn't interesting to you Trouble because then you'd have to employ critical faculties that would seem to have atrophied in your calcified noggin.
i just wanted to thank whoever posted this on the internet...what a great resource! I knew who i was going to vote for, but my sister, who just moved to the country from Costa Rica, is not politically inclined but wanted to make an informed decision, and I recommended this to her and she found a lot of the links extremely useful...so thank you!
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