Fleishman Hillard: The Political View

Like many Canadians, I’ve been watching the membership grow in the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament (CAPP) Facebook group over the last few weeks. There was speculation in the office as to when the group’s membership would break 200,000. And it did, yesterday. Brian put up an excellent post questioning whether a digital gathering that large could make a difference and Michael Geist’s article in today’s Toronto Star claims the group has been successful.

Successful? Perhaps. It really depends on how you measure success in this environment.

I believe it’s too early for the group to claim anything other than keeping the issue in the news and in the minds of the politians–no small victory, I admit. That’s not just because CAPP has yet to accomplish anything other than large membership. In relative terms, the group is small. It took roughly 150,000 members (many of them not yet voting age) of the Young Drivers Against New Ontario Laws Facebook group to persuade the Ontario government to rethink its proposed changes to licensing laws in the autumn of 2008. That’s roughly one per-cent of the population of the province at a time when fewer people knew about Facebook. CAPP’s 203,831 members this morning represent one-half of one per-cent of Canada’s population more of which, arguably, knows about Facebook (if they didn’t then, they probably do now).

Another interesting comparison is Michael Geist’s Fair Copyright for Canada (FCC) Facebook group which was incredibly successful in influencing policy, delaying the introduction of copyright reforms and “forcing” public hearings. It wasn’t the size of the group (at 85,984 members, it’s the smallest of the three examples I’m using) that made the difference, but what the group did. FCC Members from Edmonton travelled to join members in Calgary as they confronted then industry minister Jim Prentice at his Christmas party. Then it seemed that wherever Mr. Prentice went, he was intercepted by members of FCC. It was a real-world effort by a community that came together online. By the way, you can watch videos of the “interceptions” in the FCC group.

I don’t want to diminish the significance of a 200,000 member Facebook group. The sheer size of the group has caused detractors to take notice of digital advocacy and CAPP has ignited conversations across Canada because of the media attention it’s getting. Advocacy of any sort has to start somewhere. As I pointed out to a colleague, yesterday, the Suffrage movement didn’t secure the right for women to vote with a single question. And, in my own post a few weeks ago, I talked about the importance of political parties and the government of Canada embracing digital tools now as a way to engage Canadians, particularly the digital natives, and keep democracy relevant in the future.

The three Facebook groups I’ve highlighted are doing important work. They’re helping to draw the leading edge of the curve of digital participation and digital democracy at the federal level.

However, in terms of claiming full victory, Parliament is still prorogued and the Conservative party remains in power. When it comes to the Government, that’s where the measurement is.