Thursday, September 4, 2008

They Might Just Be Starting To Get The Hang of This "Interweb" Thing...

Nation, the Conservative Party of Canada has been accused, rightly in most cases, of being the party of "Old, White guys". Resultantly, there's a perception of a lack of computer savvy among the party membership as a whole, and a lack of technological understanding at the higher levels.

Imagine my surprise, then, to find THIS posted on the CPC website, about their policy convention (scheduled a month or so after the election we were promised we wouldn't have until 2009).

Holy CRAP... are the Tories starting to understand the role that Bloggers can play in getting out the message?

The Blogosphere, of course, has a small "l" liberal slant to it, just by the nature of the medium and the demographics that utilize it most frequently. But still... if the Tories are starting to "get it" about the impact this medium can have, that doesn't bode well for the Liberals, who until now have reaped the rewards of a virtually uncontested title to the hearts and minds of bloggers.

"Come see how we do things - you might even like us, and decide to say nice things about us. We respect your writing and your influence, and consider you what you've been privately calling yourself for years - an alternative, but equal, form of media - entitled to the same type of access and credentials as the traditional main-stream media".

Not their words - mine. But that's the implied message. It's a surprise - but a pleasant one. Let's see if other conservative parties - especially the PC's here in Alberta - follow suit (likely too late for the Alberta PC's - their AGM is in less than a month).

Not that the federal Tory offer does all that much good to me - you're required to submit your given name. Based on some of the things I'm about to say about some of their candidates, that might not work out so well for me. So I'll be taking a pass. But I'd be interested to see which bloggers DO take them up on their offer, and whether they're as inclined to offer credentials to a Scott Tribe or daveberta as they would to members of the Blogging Tories or the late, great, much-lamented Alberta Tory (who, you'll recall, I ran out of the blogosphere months ago).

I have my suspicions, but time will tell... too late for the election, but it WILL tell nonetheless.

1 comment:

kenchapman said...

I tried to get blogger credentials for the Democratic National Convention in Denver...made it past step 3 of a 4 step process.

They did offer an alternative via the Daily KOS I think at another location in Denver. I did not think flying to Denver just to watch it on TV with a bunch of bloggers would be worth the time or money.

I think bloggers will be credentialed as media in many of these political events in the near future. Good for the Cons to start the ball rolling.