What wannabe politician will dare venture into the electoral fray this fall unarmed with a hashtag of caring? Will the banality of the Twitter blather drive us to Snapchat or will we start tooting on Mastodon? And there is still much to say about the depths of Facebook. The point is that there are options for computer-savvy politicians. You are probably not as rich or as brazen as Donald Trump, so do not expect a huge number of followers.
The important message in this is that you are always better off leaving the twits and other messages to someone you trust in the 16-to-24 age bracket. These people grew up with the Internet and use the right language. Us old fogeys (anyone over 35) use archaic language, lack skill at using emoticons and need more than 280 characters to express ourselves clearly.
But the point here is that there are many ways to communicate with supporters and voters as well as the traditional political pamphlets. Not, I hasten to add, that you should ever forget the impact of a strong, colourful piece of literature. And I noticed there were few politicians over the years who lost when their team produced a tabloid, or a series of tabloids for them to build a winning campaign.
The world today is doing what it is always doing: transitioning. You have people in your electoral district in their 90s. They can be quite reliable voters, if you are helpful. And there are first-time voters who are not sure how our system of voting works. You can also be helpful to them. And you have to be sure that every voter has been asked to support your candidate.
There is also one other factor to consider in regards to social media. Being Internet savvy will keep many MPs engaged during the next parliament. The consensus is that in that parliament there will be a strong movement to bring some regulation and the all-important taxation needed to this digital aspect of Canadian life. The invasions of privacy that we have been seeing in recent years and the need for determining borders for taxation purposes has been ignored by Canada’s governments for too long.
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Copyright 2019 © Peter Lowry
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