Friday, August 01, 2008

On connections

The Pundits' Guide offers up an interesting comparison of Facebook support among Canada's party leaders, as well as the candidates in the current by-election campaigns.

Now, I'll agree with PG that it's far from clear what exactly the numbers mean: they could conceivably reflect grassroots support, but could equally easily be based more on a concerted effort directed at Facebook in particular rather than other party-building steps which might not be se easily compared. And indeed I'd think that a party is probably at least as well served building its own online infrastructure (with something like Facebook considered primarily a conduit to bring in new supporters), rather than putting a long-term focus on a third-party site whose own impact is likely to wax and wane relatively quickly in political terms.

Whatever the ultimate impact of the Facebook support numbers, however, it's probably safe to say that a party is better off having more support rather than less in nearly any medium. And to the extent the NDP's candidates are ahead of all competitors both nationally and in the two most contentious by-elections, that may offer another measure of strong NDP support that hasn't yet surfaced in national polling.

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