That Low Hum of Activity Keeps the Pressure On
I said repeatedly last week that this campaign was outside of the fray of party politics – that this campaign has as its only goal the enactment of the new Atlantic Accord. One of the ways to achieve this is through direct legislative pressure, wherein citizens attempt to influence the thinking of an elected official through mass action. We’ve seen Members of Parliament acknowledge this kind of pressure, and we’ve seen the Prime Minister of Canada respond to online activity.
This is well and good, but the other – and perhaps more important way to keep the Accord legislation a high priority – is to keep the Accord issue somewhere on the radar of journalists across the country. Tug on the coat of newspaper editors, call an open line show, call the office of your Member of Parliament – all of these kinds of activities can contribute to a low hum of activity that the media will pay attention to. Politicians will be more reluctant to delay passage of this bill if they know that voters are paying attention. They are even more reluctant to delay passage if they know that the media still sees the Accord saga as a story. Keep the pressure on, take action, contact your direct Member of Parliament. Contact the Finance Committee, who will deal with the Accord next.
And guess what? The media pays attention not only to mass-action movements like this one, but the Globe and Mail reports today that blogs are “moving mainstream":
As well, more than half of those people say blogs have an impact on public opinion, mainstream media and public policy, according to the results of a survey released Wednesday by research firm Ipsos.
This I just had to share: I can affirm that there is one less rat in Washington D.C. today. I ran over one on my mountain bike on the way home from work. Right in front of the Whitehouse. I’m not kidding.
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In keeping with the spirit of your approach Kevin, I think the key point here is to keep pressure on all sides to make this thing happen.
Fair Deal as such shouldn’t pick a route for passage; let the legislators figure that out.
The key point here is to get it done.
Sending messages to Doyle and Hearn netted you some criticism but solely because their partisan supporters didn’t want their performance judged by the same yardstick applied to everyone. Like I noted already, their supporters were both easy to spot and more likely to be mainlanders. With all due respect, it ain’t their dog.
E-mails need to be sent to many places. People need to get a strong message through - but here’s the point: EVERYONE has to work together and compromise here.
In the current campaign phase, a bunch of people need to get e-mails - NOT determined by party affiliation.
Comment by Ed Hollett — 5/26/2005 @ 3:45 amGot a point there Ed. Let’s see what my time will allow me to do. I do think the Liberal MPs, along with Martin and Goodale, do need to step up and do the right thing now. They survived, make the Accord happen now. As you say, I’d like to see the legislators figure out the best way to make that happen.
On a side note, the letter launched yesterday hit only a small portion of the database. I think a sustained trickle of letters will do better to keep the pressure on this time, instead of a full-blown assault. Thought folks might find that interesting – pulling back the curtain a bit.
Just to post this again, here is the Finance Committee member page:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/committee/CommitteeList.aspx?Lang=1&PARLSES=381&JNT=0&SELID=e18_&COM=8977
should visitor feel compelled to email them now.
Comment by Kevin — 5/26/2005 @ 7:15 am