Where have I been?
Thinking about Joe Trippi.
I’ve taken a mental hiatus from the Fair Deal web site since last Friday — the longest I’ve spent away from a computer in months. My wife was pleased to see me again (or so she says).
Some thoughts to follow, but first I’d like to thank supporters for recent comments and emails suggesting next moves for Fair Deal. Your input is very valuable.
Organizing the Fair Deal effort has been an honour and a privilege. I was thinking today that our number, twenty-five thousand, is roughly five percent of the population of Newfoundland and Labrador. To put this in perspective, if an online campaign were to attract five percent of the population of Canada, that campaign would have 1.6 million supporters.
I firmly believe that because of the national attention generated around the Fair Deal effort — all due to activists spreading the word — we have played a role in bringing online outreach and mobilization to Canadian politics. Certainly, we can’t claim that we “revolutionized politics in Canada” or changed the way things are done — our politicians need only look across the border to see what’s possible — but the Fair Deal online effort has generated buzz in political backrooms across Canada.
Digesting all of this, and being a part of bringing mass online political activism to my home province, I re-read pieces of Joe Trippi’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” over the weekend. Trippi was U.S. presidential hopeful Howard Dean’s campaign manager and the man behind Dean’s groundbreaking online campaign strategy. Talking about Dean supporters, Trippi writes:
In fact, if every business and civic leader in every sector of the economy and in every segment of society doesn’t think that in the next decade they’re in for Howard Dean-style surprises from the people they’ve been treating with condescension, they haven’t been paying attention. Every business that spends $20 million on television advertising and just $20,000 to post a static web site that is updated once a month had better watch their backs. Every institution that doesn’t understand that the technology is finally here to allow people to reject what they’re being given and demand what they want had better start paying attention.
The revolution comes for you next.
It will be interesting to watch Canada’s political parties continue to evolve and rise to the challenge of democracy in the internet age.
It will be even more interesting to watch how Newfoundland and Labrador’s elected leaders respond. In some sense, I believe we’ve thrown down the gauntlet: they’ve seen twenty-five thousand Fair Deal supporters show up and engage politically as if out of nowhere. The lesson plan on the importance of online outreach is in plain view — let’s see who gets the message first.
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I don’t think that the Canadian political machines and the NL political machines have quite twigged into this medium yet. It usually takes a while.It will be interesting to see what happens in the next federal election. Could we unleash this force to bolster other causes eg. Custodial management, Gull Island, The rural crisis in NL etc.? Probably something to keep in mind.
Comment by Jeremiah — 2/8/2005 @ 1:38 pmCertainly something to keep in mind. I’d also add that the parties have put a great deal into their web efforts in recent years. Three quick links if you haven’t visited lately:
http://www.liberal.ca/
http://www.ndp.ca/
http://www.conservative.ca/
They certainly look better than they used to, which is a good thing, but doesn’t necessarily reflect the substance of their outreach strategy, or the level of commitment from their supporters.
Comment by Kevin McCann — 2/8/2005 @ 2:13 pmKevin, Your site is proof that the Internet can really bring issues to the fore in a hurry. Thanks to you, over 25,000 Newfoundlanders have spoken and been heard by the politicans. I am sure that with every e-mail Martin received, N&L was closer to a fair deal. It is quite stunning when you consider how many people took up the gauntlet and sent their email. It was empowering and I await our next challenge. Thanks, Kevin, for giving us all a voice. Regards,
Comment by Anne Marie — 2/8/2005 @ 6:56 pmI repeat from before, and beyond:
“The one thing you (WJM) did omit from your careful splicing of what I last had to say was a response to the following:
“Here’s, once again, me hoping for PROVINCIAL (Yes, N AND L solidarity). You [WJM] are continuing to water down the momentum and resolve of Newfoundland and Labrador [or at least this Blog] by creating in-fighting. Thanks for opening our eyes to these problems but let us remain focused on protecting the whole province. The unity of our varied parts is stronger if we stay a little bit tighter and more focused on the national rebounds and repercussions rather than trying to get Newfoundland to somehow “repay” Labrador.”
Yes, I’m saying that you have brought some valid points to these discussions, and you have identified to me (I will not speak for others) that we all, Newfoundlanders AND Labradorians, must continue to request action of our MHA’s for the projects and promises to which the Premiere rode to his seat in the legislature. Surely, you can communicate with your MHA and MP about the important topics passionately entrenched in your psyche. It can’t be that you have reduced your political musing and participation merely to this blog (as cool as it is!) where you have convinced me of issues that need to be reviewed by MHA’s, MP’s and Premieres alike…
Should we bog down this blog with straight rants about Labradors rights? If taking on radical issues and concepts is on the table check this out…
It’s unlikely that I’ll ever wear a special coloured jacket or attend rallies to support or bolster a specific candidate or party. Clubs of like thinking people often get carried away with themselves and tend to create situations that those clubs were originally intended to defend.
Sure, you’ll come up with 10 - 100 clubs, some big, some small that may not do this but the thing they all have in common, you may ask? Organizations or clubs started out as volunteer groups designed to help people (usually a family member) but now, the existence, the administration and shear bureaucracy of those clubs has become a larger liability and greater demand upon club resources than the actual problem to which those initial volunteers sought to rectify.
I mean come on, how many millions of dollars are actually going towards the and how much is going to the administration, advertising and pay checks of people who are now required to complete the work of the burnt-out former volunteers? Hey sure, I still drop my dollars in the kettle and get some in tax-receipts for helping out but how much is making it to the research or needy child/family? Way less than we know my friends, way way less than we know.
So in my attempt to say why I’ll likely avoid red, blue or orange jacket groups I condemn many other groups with my conspiracy theory. Again though, most of these groups started with good intentions, it’s just that the people who started these organizations couldn’t work for nothing forever and many organizations were retooled by opportunists who now make more cash than “their” cause!
Sorry, my rant took on a life of its own…
Fred from CBS
Comment by Fred Harris — 2/8/2005 @ 11:16 pm