POLICY OPTIONS

NOVEMBER 2008
85
The Internet is now part of the political parties' tool box. How did the Canadian
parties fare in that regard compared to their southern neighbours during the recent
campaign? Tamara Small from Mount Allison University examines the question and
concludes that Canada's parties still lag behind, most notably in their use of
Facebook: While major and minor Canadian political parties had established
campaign sites, they failed to take advantage of the full potential of the medium.
Vote swapping was the most interesting Facebook moment, she says, but it had
nothing to do with the parties.
LInternet fait dsormais partie de la bote outils des partis politiques. Comment
les partis canadiens sen sont-ils servi durant la dernire campagne par rapport
ceux des tats-Unis ? Tamara Small, de lUniversit Mount Allison, a tudi la
question et conclut quils accusent un certain retard en la matire, surtout pour ce
qui est de lusage de Facebook : Si chacun des petits et grands partis canadiens a
cr son propre site de campagne, aucun na su en exploiter tout le potentiel.
Lchange des suffrages tait laspect le plus intressant de Facebook, ajoute-t-elle,
mais cela navait rien voir avec les partis politiques.
T
he Internet, as a tool for on-line campaigning, is a
moving target. The killer app for campaigners
appears to change from election to election.
Campaign Web sites and on-line fundraising were new
and novel in 2000. While major and minor Canadian
political parties had established campaign sites, they
failed to take advantage of the full potential of the medi-
um. By 2004, Howard Deans success with Blog for
America had made political parties and candidates jump
on the blogwagon. In the 2004 federal election, Canadian
sites were more dynamic and integrated into the overall
strategy of the parties.
This said, the sites seem to lag behind the American
ones in terms of citizen engagement tools. The blogging
revolution occurred two years later in the 2006 election,
where amateur bloggers, media bloggers and party blog-
gers covered and discussed the election. This year, there is
much talk of the Facebook effect. Candidates for elec-
tion on both sides of the 49
th
parallel have established
Facebook pages to capitalize on the millions of
Facebookers. But yet again Canadas parties have lagged
behind those of the southern neighbours.
F
acebook is part of a broader transformation of the
Internet called Web 2.0. Compared to its predecessor,
Web 2.0 is far more collaborative, creative and interactive.
Social networking, blogging, microblogging, on-line video
sites such as YouTube and social bookmarking sites like Digg
are part of the Web 2.0 universe. All of these sites allow users
to interact with other users and collaborate in the creation of
site content. While Friendster and MySpace launched social
networking, Facebook is now the major player. Founded in
February 2004, Facebook is a social utility that helps people
communicate more efficiently with others. Not only is it the
most popular social networking site, Facebook is one of the
worlds most trafficked Web sites period. Initially targeting
college students, Facebook has more than 100 million active
users, two million of whom are Canadian.
On-line social networking has grown rapidly. A 2007 Ipsos-
Reid study reported that 37 percent of Internet-enabled
Canadians, 18 and older, had visited a social networking site
and 29 percent have placed a profile on at least one such site.
One year later an M2 Universal social media survey reports that
59 percent of on-line Canadians have created a social network-
ing profile. Like other social networking sites, Facebook allows
THE FACEBOOK EFFECT? ON-
LINE CAMPAIGNING IN THE
2008 CANADIAN AND US
ELECTIONS
Tamara A. Small
OPTIONS POLITIQUES
NOVEMBRE 2008
86
individuals to create a personal profile
and form links with other users. These
links may replicate off-line personal rela-
tionships with friends, family, co-workers
and classmates, but users may also link
with others who share similar interests.
Politics is very popular on Facebook. In
2006, the site allowed politicians to cre-
ate profiles and buy ad space. Like any
Facebook user, a politician can provide
information about themselves, post pho-
tographs or videos, post notes to their
supporters and interact with supporters
on their wall. Beyond the personal pro-
files of the politician, there are a growing
number of groups dedicated to various
political issues forming via Facebook.
These groups may or may not have com-
parable off-line equivalents.
T
here are clear benefits for a cam-
paign on Facebook; first, a campaign
can increase exposure at a low cost or no
cost. Moreover, this exposure is unmedi-
ated by the press. Second, Facebook pro-
vides access to the millennial generation
those born between 1980 and 2000. A
study by the Dominion Institute shows
that four in five young Canadians aged
18-25 have a Facebook profile. Some see
social networking sites as an ideal way to
reach young people, who are increasing-
ly apathetic about politics. Third, because
Facebook requires the user to request to
be a friend or supporter of the cam-
paign, a ready-made database is created
allowing campaigns to raise contribu-
tions and recruit volunteers on-line.
Fourth, like other aspects of the Internet,
Facebook is interactive. This could poten-
tially allow communication between vot-
ers and the campaign and between voters
and other voters.
Democratic presidential candidate
Barack Obama is the newly minted king
of on-line campaigning, and Facebook is
playing a central role. The hiring of
Chris Hughes, one of Facebooks co-
founders, to coordinate his on-line cam-
paign evidences the importance of social
networking to the Obama campaign.
Obama is clearly winning the Facebook
war with Republican John McCain; 2.2
million people have friended the
Democratic presidential candidate on
Facebook, compared to just over half a
million for John McCain. Some 500
unofficial Facebook groups are dedicated
to the Democratic candidate. One of the
oldest Obama Facebook groups, One
Million Strong for Barack, is 183,000
short of meeting its goal of one million
supporters. Facebook as well as other dig-
ital tools such as e-mail and text mes-
sages are being used to reach potential
donors and volunteers. To date, the cam-
paign has raised than $600 million. Like
Howard Dean before him, much of
Obamas money comes from millions of
small donors over the Internet.
Has the Facebook effect hit
Canadian election politics? A quick
search of the term Canadian election
in the Facebook search engine results in
more than 400 groups. Moreover, all five
of the major Canadian party leaders, as
well as thousands of candidates across
Canada, posted profiles on Facebook
during the recent campaign. However, if
the mantra of Web 2.0 is collaboration
and interaction, the Facebook sites of the
party leaders did not live up to this in
the 2008 election. The use of Facebook
by the parties was very minimal com-
pared to their American counterparts
and even compared to their use of other
parts of the on-line campaign.
If the highest number of friends
indicated success in the election then
Jack Layton would now be prime minis-
ter. Table 1 shows the number of
friends each party leader had on elec-
tion day. Canadians did not clamour to
friend a Canadian party leader in this
campaign. The number of Facebook
friends of the party leaders does not
compare to Barack Obamas or even
John McCains. Indeed, Facebook
friends are a small proportion of the
Canadian electorate, making up not
even 1 percent of those who
actually showed up at the
polls on October 14. This
said, the number of
Facebook friends of
Canadian party leaders did
increase over the 37-day
campaign by 39 percent.
Facebook was used to
provide basic information about the
leader. In addition to basic contact
information, friends were privy to
some interesting facts about Canadas
party leaders, including that Star Wars is
Jack Laytons favourite movie and that
Stephen Harper is writing a book on the
early history of professional hockey.
O
verall, the Facebook profiles were
static and low on information.
Whereas hundreds of press releases and
reality checks were uploaded to the home
pages of the party Web sites, none of it
was uploaded to Facebook. Mainly, the
profiles featured photographs from the
campaign trail and/or the parties televi-
sion advertisements. However, very few
of the party leaders took a page from
Barack Obamas playbook, using the
direct access to supporters to raise funds
and recruit volunteers. Jack Layton sent
two notifications, one seeking volunteers
and one for fundraising. Stphane Dion
once engaged in viral campaigning by
asking supporters to help us spread the
message by sending a message to others,
Tamara A. Small
Has the Facebook effect hit Canadian election politics? A
quick search of the term Canadian election in the Facebook
search engine results in more than 400 groups. Moreover, all
five of the major Canadian party leaders, as well as thousands
of candidates across Canada, posted profiles on Facebook
during the recent campaign.
Party Leader Friends
Jack Layton 25,127
Stephen Harper 17,903
Stphane Dion 14,263
Elizabeth May 5,377
Gilles Duceppe 2,383
Total 65,053
TABLE 1. NUMBER OF FRIENDS ON
ELECTION DAY BY PARTY LEADER
POLICY OPTIONS
NOVEMBER 2008
87
encouraging them to friend the Liberal
leader. Beyond these examples, direct
appeals for support via Facebook were
non-existent in the Canadian on-line
campaign. Obamas fundraising success
would suggest that this was a lost oppor-
tunity for the political parties. Arguably a
Facebook friend would be the very type
of person who would be willing to
donate or volunteer.
With Web 2.0, a politician could
use the Internet to allow for consider-
able participation in the campaign by
letting supporters contribute campaign
content and interact with the party
and with other supporters. Generally,
Facebook was not utilized in this capac-
ity. Even though friends of Elizabeth
May and Jack Layton were able to sub-
mit fan photos and videos, only a
small number of people did so. The
wall feature did allow friends to post
comments to the campaign and for
other supporters. By the end of the
campaign, some 4,000 comments
appeared on Laytons and Dions wall,
both May and Duceppe had fewer than
1,000 comments. Interestingly, the
Prime Ministers profile did not feature
a wall; there was no two-way interac-
tivity on that site.
P
erhaps the most interesting
Facebook moment of the 2008 elec-
tion had nothing to do with the parties
at all. Shortly after the writ dropped, a
Facebook group called Anti-Harper Vote
Swap Canada formed. The groups mis-
sion was to ensure that Stephen Harper
and the Conservative Party did not
obtain a majority in the 2008 federal
election. Using a Facebook application,
the group aimed to match up voters in
ridings where the Conservatives were in
tight races and encourage people to
vote for the party most likely to upset
the Tory candidate. The only way to
participate in the vote swap was to have
a Facebook account.
Vote swapping is not a new phe-
nomenon; in both the 2000 and 2004
presidential election campaigns, vari-
ous Web sites emerged to allow sup-
porters of the Democratic candidates
and Ralph Nader to trade their votes.
In the United Kingdom, there are even
reports that vote swappers using the
site [Link] were successful in
one riding in the 2001 election. This
was, however, the first time that vote
swapping came to prominence in a
Canadian election and on a social net-
working site.
Anti-Harper Vote Swap Canada
received considerable media attention.
The group even prompted an Elections
Canada investigation, which deter-
mined it is legal and does not violate
any electoral laws. A number of
Facebook groups formed in opposition,
including Anti-Anti-Harper Vote Swap
and Voters Against Vote Swapping.
This Facebook group was a part of a
broader on-line phenomenon of strate-
gic voting Web sites that appeared in
this campaign. Sites like [Link]-
[Link] encouraged voters
to vote anything but Conservative or
ABC by identifying ridings where the
party was vulnerable. By election day,
some 13,000 Facebook users had joined
the group. With the victory of the
Conservative Party in this campaign,
the success of Anti-Harper Vote Swap
Canada and other strategic voting Web
sites is called into question. Given the
secret ballot, there is no way of know-
ing how many members of the
Facebook group followed through on
their commitment.
T
he use of Facebook by Canadas
party leaders shares little with
Barack Obamas. However, given the
differences in political context, this is
not surprising. The United States is a
candidate-centred polity with a vast-
ly different regulatory regime and
media environment than Canada. It
should be expected that these factors
would shape how candidates and par-
ties on both sides of the
border use the digital tech-
nologies. Moreover, given
the small number of peo-
ple who friended the
party leaders, it may not be
surprising that the cam-
paign did not focus much
of its precious resources
there. It should also be remembered
that Facebook was just one part of
the sophisticated on-line strategy of
the Canadian parties. In addition to
their standard party Web sites, sever-
al parties utilized other Web sites that
had a narrower focus. For instance,
the Conservative Partys controver-
sial Not a Leader site featured the
pooping puffin. The Liberals creat-
ed This Is Dion to introduce
Canadians to the Liberal leader, while
the NDP established a social network-
ing site call Orange Room. The Bloc
Qubcois Web site featured a blog
called Blogue Qubcois. Other social
networking sites like the microblog-
ging site Twitter and YouTube were
also prominent during this cam-
paign. The 2008 on-line campaign
was very sophisticated and dynamic;
it just did not occur on Facebook.
Overall, the impact of Facebook on
electoral politics remains to be seen.
Even if Barack Obama wins the US
presidential election, it will be difficult
to assess the contributions of Facebook
and other digital technologies to the
victory. What is certain, however, is the
growing centrality of the Internet as
part of the campaign strategy in both
the United States and Canada.
Tamara A. Small is an assistant profes-
sor at Mount Allison University. She can
be reached at tsmall@[Link].
The Facebook effect? On-line campaigning in the 2008 Canadian and US elections
Perhaps the most interesting Facebook moment of the 2008
election had nothing to do with the parties at all. Shortly after the
writ dropped, a Facebook group called Anti-Harper Vote Swap
Canada formed. The groups mission was to ensure that Stephen
Harper and the Conservative Party did not obtain a majority in the
2008 federal election. Using a Facebook application.