of waking up. They’re always engaged on a certain level.
RS: Do you think that observation is mutually ex- clusive from the one a pollster had recently – that fifteen percent of Canadians are paying attention to politics right now? Do you think those are mu- tually exclusive propositions?
MS: Yes.
RS: I’m not sure what the number is but there’s a subset of the electorate that pays close attention to politics all the time. Every time they turn on the television and see something, every time they pick up a newspaper, every time they go online, every time they’re listening to radio and someone’s talk- ing about politics, it is penetrating at least on a cer- tain level. It’s a question of how much. It is difficult if you’re not engaged in a permanent campaign to reset people’s opinions during a short writ period. This was the undoing of Dalton McGuinty in 1999. This was the undoing of Stephane Dion. It might be seen as part of the undoing of Michael Ignatieff.
CR: Myth number two: Debunked; that the voters ‘wake up’ once a writ gets dropped or once debate takes place in the middle of the campaign. Voters are always engaged to a certain extent.
Myth #3 – Social Media is for the “Kids” RS: You were talking about technology and that some people think that an online strategy is just for the “kids” (young voters) or the techies.
CR: It used to be we argued over whether or not a website was needed, but now it’s about the extent a campaign engages in social media or new media, and if it is just for a special group of young people or those interested in technology. The stats speak for themselves. Of the twenty-
three and a half million Canadians that are online, nineteen million of them are on Facebook. These are staggering, staggering, staggering penetration numbers for social media. The thirty-five percent of Canadians are using SMS (texting) from their mobile phones. These are no longer technologies stranded only to those who have an income, those who have an education or those who are young. I think social media is now a part of the average Canadians’ daily routine. Myth number three, that only the kids and the techies are online, is pretty solidly debunked. MS: Yes. Online isn’t just for “kids” anymore. The fastest growing segment of the population using
social media tools like Facebook, are people over the age of fifty-five. They use it to monitor and check on their grandchildren, and family. There is also massive pick up on things like Skype. Skype- babysitting is not unique anymore. Who’s doing this? Seniors. Who votes? Seniors. Not having an online presence is frankly ridiculous. RS: We talked about this on one of our previ- ous visits to the Senator. Given how media cycles move in a campaign it is important to have social media presence.
It’s not the six o’clock news, or
the eleven o’clock news or just the next morning’s newspaper. We now cope with six, seven or a doz- en media cycles every single day of the writ period. It’s critical if you’re going to get any message,
positive – reactive - or negative, landed in the cam- paign. I agree with both of you that if you don’t have strong online campaign, you don’t have a strong campaign anymore. It’s that core to what a campaign is in 2011.
CR: Myth number three: Debunked. Social media is for everyone and campaigns ignore it at their peril.
Myth #4 – A Knock-out Punch is Needed to Win a Debate CR: Another big myth in campaigns, and I guess we can all think back to the Reagan-Carter debate and the Turner-Mulroney debate, is that there’s some knockout punch a candidate needs to de- liver in order to declare victory at a debate. The myth being that if that knockout punch is deliv- ered, the direction of an election campaign is set, or changed.
RS: It is amazing to me how many hours and how much effort is spent on debate prep by ev- ery party, in every election campaign, for very little return. It is extraordinarily difficult to use a de- bate to change opinion and momentum. There are however a couple of exceptions. For example, if you’re Elizabeth May (Leader of the Green Party of Canada) and you’re suddenly included in the nationally televised debate despite your low poll numbers and despite not having a single seat in Parliament (as happened in 2008), a debate offers a unique opportunity to present your platform and ideas. Another would be someone like Andrea Horwath (Leader of the Ontario NDP) who head- ing into the next Ontario election campaign isn’t very well-known and has little name recognition. Being on stage with the premier for a televised de- bate is an opportunity for her. But that’s not about winning the campaign, that’s about growing your vote share of voice.
April 2011 | Campaigns & Elections 7
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