The Alberta 2012 Election Twitter Echo Chamber

  Most people that know me will confirm that I love to use Twitter and think that is an amazing social media platform.  Over the past three years, I have been engaged on this medium and have met some outstanding Calgarians of all party stripes online.  I have become friends with a diverse group of people on twitter that I probably would never have met in real life.  Over the past few years we have always had a great banter and while we often disagreed, we could have a respectful debate.  This can best be seen through the diverse group of bloggers and media people that often get together for "Politweet" meet-ups, usually generously hosted by Joey Oberhoffner and Derrick Jacobson.  These tweetups take place with people from the entire political spectrum and truth be told, we all get along just fine!  That said, not all of the twitter engagement over the past few weeks with respect to #abvote has been as ideal.

  I have noticed that over the past month the tone from all parties on Twitter has gotten a tad nasty.  Its OK for all parties to disagree, but I am shocked at how personal the attacks against party supporters has become.  A quick scan of the #abvote hashtag will reveal a cesspool of attacks, negative re-tweets and slurs against each PC and WRP supporters.  To be fair, I think that all parties have an equal amount of negativity and I think that the election campaign has increased tensions substantially.  It has gotten so nasty online that I joked that "I hope we can all be friends when this election is over" and I seriously hope the nastiness dies down after April 23.  

  If you think back to the 2010 Calgary Municipal election, the use of Twitter to engage political discussion exploded.  People that were not typically involved or interested in politics used this medium to ask questions and debate issues respectfully.  This healthy debate actually engaged people to get involved and led to an increased turnout on election day and help to inform voters of the issues the city faced.  Fast forward to the Alberta provincial election and the same cannot be said.  The #abvote negativity appears to have driven many average tweeters away from the conversation.  I have heard numerous times that people who try to ask questions or join the debate are "pounced on" from the opposing side, which causes some to just back away from the conversation.

 Since many casual political twitter followers seem to be driven away from the debates, it looks like the only people left screaming are the "usual suspects' ( myself included) and we appear to be just yelling into an endless echo chamber.  If this is true, I often wonder if others think there actually is value in tweeting and trying to debate issues regarding the election?  If PCAA and WRP members just banter back and forth, without outside engagement, what is the point?  (Its not like we are not going to sway each other to vote for the other party!)  It often just comes back to attacks by each side, followed by responses and another attack.  While I have been guilty of this, I have really been getting drained by it all. 

 It will be interesting to see just how bad things get online over the next few weeks.  While its unfortunate that it has gotten so nasty, it is even more shameful that we have driven people away from the conversation. While most of us clearly show which party we support by our avatar "twibbons', we are probably failing to properly and objectively inform the casual twitter user.  Hopefully, we really all can go back to being friends when this is all over and can look toward the example that the Politweet members set in respectful disagreement! 



   

Alberta 2012 Provincial Election Riding Profile: Calgary Southeast

  The riding of Calgary Southeast was created in 2010 with the Alberta provincial boundary changes, due to explosive population growth in this area.  The riding was carved out of Calgary Hays and parts of Calgary Shaw and includes the neighborhoods of Auburn Bay, Chaparral, Copperfield, Cranston, Mahogany, New Brighton and Silverado.  The riding was previously represented by PCAA MLA Art Johnston from 2004-2012. 

  Most of the communities in the riding of Calgary Southeast have all been built after 2000, so this is a dynamic, new suburban area.  The are is also home to the massive new South Calgary Health Campus that is set to open this year.  The area is made up of a lot of young families and professionals. 

The Candidates: 

Brad Carroll ( Liberal)

Rick Fraser ( PCAA)

Bill Jarvis ( WRP)
 
Marta Warszynski ( NDP)


I will attempt to post some individual interviews with the candidates on this site during the election.

To find out where you vote in Calgary Southeast, head over to this link.
 

Alberta Election 2012: Which Candidate Will Put Their Foot In Their Mouth First?

  As we head into the second week of the 2012 Alberta provincial election campaign, I am still waiting for a candidate to create a nasty headline with some ill timed comment.  Every campaign has these "foot in mouth" moments and while I am sure that there will be a few over the next few weeks, I am surprised that none have come from the Wildrose Party as of yet.  Sure, we saw the stupid comment by a 23 year old female PCAA staffer, which kicked off a minor "fertili-tweet" flurry, but I am actually talking about candidate campaign mistakes.

  While all parties seem to have an eclectic cross section of candidates, I think the upstart Wildrose has an even greater selection of rookie political candidates than most parties.  The Wildrose members are a passionate bunch and I assume that most of them have joined this new party because of a variety of social or financial conservative touchstones that they are rabid about.  Because of this passion, I am shocked that the candidates ( and most of the WRP twitter-esque types) have gone rather quiet as of late.  That said, after reading Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid's article this morning, I really should not be all that surprised by the silence.

 In the article, Don mentions that his local WRP candidate got a little spooked when he realized he was on Mr.Braid's doorstep!  The nervous candidate then told Don that if he wanted to talk, he would "have to call the Wildrose campaign media team.'  Hmmm....sounds like a classic gag order from the party executive to me!  It is not hard to imagine the fear that the WRP executive must have when they imagine their candidates running wild and talking to reporters during an election.  Without the complete control of the WRP executive talking points at hand ( or some sort of wireless microphone feeding the script to their candidate) they must be afraid that some sort of "foot in mouth" moment will sink the Wildrose campaign in an instant.

  The majority of the (non-political)  people I talk to still are not sure what the Wildrose is all about.  To them, they feel that they are an "extreme right wing" party and I think that the Wildrose knows that a few crazy comments from their candidates will derail their "centrist" message and further cement the undecided voters ill informed image of them.  With that in mind, I can see why it appears that there is an implied "gag order" in place.  I would love to see the list of "DO NOT DISCUSS" issues that each candidate received in their training package.  It will be interesting to see which candidate will be the first to get caught in a media scrum and stray from the official/approved talking points and get themselves in some hot water?


 

Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson Pulls Diva Act

 
With the Alberta provincial election calls just days away, it sure seems that things are getting a bit testy in Edmonton!  I laughed so hard at the Edmonton Journal story about Wildrose MLA Rob Anderson's tussle with a female sherrif at the legislature yesterday.  In what can only be described as a severe "diva" moment, the Airdrie MLA intentionally parked in Premier Redford's assigned parking stall, only to have a fit when the sheriff demanded ID and asked him to move.

  In the story link above, you can see that Mr. Anderson feels that he is an important man and really is above reproach.  A civilized person would have apologized and simply moved the vehicle to his own assigned spot.  Perhaps he has been watching too many episodes of "Parking Wars" on A&E and thinks its OK to belittle Sheriffs who are assigned to provide security.

  I think that since he feels he is the de facto leader of the WRP that he is entitled to "test drive" the premiers spot and imagines he will in fact be the Premier one day.  Unfortunately, the thirty second park job is about as close as he will actually come to filling the Premier's shoes.

 It should be an interesting month! 

Wildrose Party Campaign Tour Bus Tire Failure!

 Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words!  I was shocked this morning when I saw the picture of the Wildrose Party campaign bus making its way around Twitter.  At first, I figured that this had to be some kind of "frat boy" photoshop joke, but I guess not.  While I think its kind of silly to make light of the picture, you cannot help but laugh at the judgement of this picture placement.

 I truly believe that the Wildrose Party is so disciplined that to think this is some sort of "error" would be naive.  I don't think that it is out of the question to consider that this placement was intentional or that once the mistake was realized, they decided to run with it anyways, due to the shock value!  I would expect that something as important as your campaign bus branding would have to be vetted by some of the senior leaders in the party.

 Maybe its a generational thing, but I doubt that there would be the same innuendo talk if the wheel placement was beneath a male leaders image, which is disappointing. ( Well, I guess it would depend on the picture though.)

You really cant buy this type of media chatter.  Especially with an election call expected within the week.

I'd love to hear some of the captions that people would apply to this picture!     

Happy Happy Wildrose Tweets! ( And A Huge Surprise Endorsement!)

  With the Alberta provincial election call just around the corner, the tension on Twitter has never been greater.  I have noticed that the tone between tweeters of all political stripes has become overheated in the last few weeks.  I used to love to jump in and debate issues with some loud Wildrose supporters, but I am just drained from all of the negativity.  I am all for honest debate, but most of these conversations have just become super partisan pissing matches and to be honest, I just cant be bothered.  The tone has gotten so nasty that I have even seen non-political people turned off.

 While I have some good friends in the Wildrose Party and think that they have some (....some) valid ideas, one of the main reasons the party has turned me off is the negative tone from the majority of there supporters online.  I would never paint an entire group of people based on a few dozen high profile members, but unfortunately they tend to represent the views of the average party member in my opinion.

Since I tend to prefer lighthearted posts, I thought I would share some cool products that may help ease the anger of the Wildrose tweets!

The Oscar "I Love The WRP" Iphone Skin! 

Campaign Buttons!  ( Watch for them on the campaign trail!)

The "0.05 Hater Shot Glass" ( I predict that this will be a big seller the day after the election!)

Good Times! 

 

Calgary Peace Bridge Discussion

   I think that most Calgarians will agree that the "Peace Bridge" controversy has been one of the most polarizing issues in local politics in may years.  Love it or hate it, the Peace Bridge is finally nearing its completion after nearly fifteen months of delays.   I had the chance to appear as a guest on the CBC Calgary Eyeopener again this week to discuss everybody's favorite pedestrian bridge and had a blast as always. 



Personally, I think that the bridge is quite odd looking, but unique.  My issues with the bridge include the following:

•  I am not a fan of the way that this bridge funding was pushed through council.  I would have preferred a public tender process and more transparency during the whole process.  Had there been more discussion on this, I think that this bridge would not have become such a polarizing issue. 

• I agree that most people were not sold on why this bridge would be needed as there are some additional pedestrian bridges nearby.

• It will be interesting to see what additional costs will be added to the final totals ( here is an interesting link about the nearby Heliport) once the dust settles. 

 Either way, I am pleased that because of the public uproar over this bridge, city council will never go through with this type of untendered public infrastructure project again. 

Here is a link to the CBC Eyeopener chat....

http://www.cbc.ca/eyeopener/columnists/unconventional/2012/02/22/unconventionals-discuss-peace-bridge/

What are your thoughts on the Peace Bridge?

Shane