IP Democracy: Blogs and Politics in Canada

I want to give a plug to an upcoming conference in Canada — mesh. (Only second time I’ve done this.) Founded by a group of savvy journalists and at least one equally hip attorney, mesh is a Canadian forum focused on Web 2.0 applications and will take place May 15 and 16 in Toronto.

One topic the conference will take a look at is the impact of blogs on Canadian politics. One of the organizers, Stuart MacDonald, suggests that Canada is so close but so far from the U.S. on the role of blogging in politics.

Canada is far away from that. In fact, you could say that there is huge evidence that Canadian political parties, steeped in senior back-room leadership who still might well have people print their emails for heaven’s sake, are far out of that loop, despite superficial attempts to look like they aren’t. Personally, I think unless that changes, they will have their communal butts handed to them online within two years.

Another organizer, Mathew Ingram, seems to disagree with his colleague.

We decided to look at that last one in part because of the effect that bloggers had on the coverage of the Iraq war, on the election of George Bush and even on events such as the Jayson Blair affair at the New York Times — but also because of the effect that bloggers like Michael Geist and Ed “Captain’s Quarters” Morrissey and Joey DeVilla had on the Canadian election, when they helped destabilize and possibly derail the candidacy of Sarmite Bulte, the record labels’ best friend.

Whichever way it is, the session on blogging looks promising, as does the entire event.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on April 27, 2006 12:47 PM to IP Democracy