January 07, 2010

Unfriending Mr. Harper

An article in the Economist 'tsktsk'ing' Steven Harper for dissolving Parliament, combined with the fashion in which his counterpart to the South totally groks Social Web, prompted a thought.

It's not fair to compare site traffic, but how about public sentiment using survey tools?
An EKOS poll revealed that 63% of Canadians agree that 'shutting down Parliament was undemocratic'. Oops.

Anectdotal but more damning, a Social Web example of tribes - for and against.

The official Stephen Harper: 29K fans and hasn't been updated since before Christmas - I assume his peeps are 'taking a break'.






Compared to 'Canadians against Proroguing Parliament': Started just over a week ago, >95K supporters. A powerful online petition.






Not listening to your constituents infers that you don't care, or are so disconnected that you don't know how. Either way, 'official' signal amongst considerable noise speaks volumes.

Get back to work already.

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