Being the researcher and the phenomenon – VoterMedia.Org October 22, 2008
Posted by Raul in random thoughts, Vancouver.Tags: Canadian politics, municipal politics, Vancouver politics
1 comment so far
I was briefly reading a couple of notes by Sean Orr (Beyond Robson) and Rebecca Bollwitt (Miss604 on Radio Zoom) on the work of Dr. Mark Latham, founder of VoterMedia.Org and I thought to myself “hey, I haven’t even talked to Mark yet since I came back“. I probably should do it soon.
I have to admit that when I was nominated to participate in the Vancouver Election Blog Awards, I was pretty flattered. It made me feel as though my content was deemed worthy and relevant (in regards to my coverage of political issues, particularly municipal elections in Vancouver).
Truth be told, as someone who has taught public policy, at some points during the VoterMedia project, I have felt both like the researcher and the phenomenon under study. Given my training and education, I am aware of the behavioral mechanisms that underlie the project itself, encouraging bloggers to create guides to educate the public for a better, more informed decision-making process.
Given that I understand how the project works, the hypothesis would be that if I wanted to be rewarded with a monetary incentive, I would be interested in creating such guides. And truth be told, I *do* like monetary rewards 🙂 But the thing is, my blog is rather personal and while I do have written a fair number of posts on municipal and Canadian politics, and on public policy/water policy as they pertain to Vancouver, I still primarily blog about myself (yeah, you can call me self-absorbed but truth be told, I am not really)
I just want to say that the project has a great underlying platform and it would be great if we (bloggers) kept our readers well informed, so that they can make choices that they feel are more educated and based on data rather than just purely political affiliation or random voting.
And I know that everyone will want me to link to Kevin Grandia’s Vote for Environment site (a lot of my off-line friends have already emailed me saying “hey Raul, can you link to this?”) so here is the link. The foundation of Vote For Environment is to create patterns of strategic voting (i.e. voting not for whom you are ideologically inclined or whom you’d vote but for whom has more chances of winning).
EDIT – I had written this post weeks ago but somehow kept putting it off and now it’s published. Obviously, Vote For Environment’s focus was the Federal election (and we all know what happened to that). But you could still vote strategically in the provincial by-election and municipal election.
The importance of voting in American, Canadian and Vancouver elections October 2, 2008
Posted by Raul in Focus on Vancouver, politics, Politics 2.0, public policy issues, random thoughts.Tags: American politics, Canadian politics, elections, electoral studies, municipal politics, Vancouver politics
5 comments
One of the areas where my mother does research is in electoral studies (however, she studies elections in Mexico more than anything, although lately she’s been interested in Canadian elections). She was mentioning how important it was to galvanize people and make them want to go and vote.
It’s true that many, many people refuse to vote because they don’t think that their vote is going to count. I was reading some statistics on how many people have voted in recent Canadian elections and I recall a figure hovering around 64% or so (of the whole electorate).
The most recent election for President was the most contested in Mexican history and I can assure you that one of the reasons for that was precisely that a lot of the people who many people thought wouldn’t vote did indeed cast a ballot.
Even though I’m not American, I’m pretty darn sure I have American readers (and of course, Canadian) so I’d strongly encourage you to register to vote. Hat tips to Steve Jagger who tweeted this video (source: YouTube) where lots of US movie stars encourage viewers to vote.
The game of politics in Canada, the US and the local levels August 30, 2008
Posted by Raul in academic life, blogosphere, food for thought, public policy issues, random thoughts, Vancouver.Tags: Canadian politics, foreign policy issues, US politics, Vancouver politics
11 comments
I don’t follow US politics. At least, I don’t follow it seriously. This may be perceived kind of shooting myself in the foot and a serious blow to my credibility as a scholar. Not at all, and I’m going to prove you wrong. I am not the only non-US citizen who is NOT obsessed with the results of the US elections. I could scour Twitter and find those key tweets where people said “hey, can we please get over the whole Barack Obama/Michelle Obama/Hillary Clinton speech and move on to other topics?“.
I understand that there are many American ex-pats in Canada, particularly Vancouver. Many, MANY of them are my friends, and not only Twitter friends or blog-friends, but friends, FRIENDS. I can also understand that many Canadians or Canadian residents are interested in the outcome of the US elections because the US is such a key actor in Canadian life. One can’t ignore the US, simply speaking. That’s also the case in Mexico because the US has a strong influence on Mexican politics (both foreign policy and domestic politics).
You could easily build a case to entice me/convince me of why I should follow US politics. But the truth is, I’m rather disappointed by the lack of interest of exactly those who have been tweeting about US politics on LOCAL (and by local I mean, Vancouver politics). Want some proof? Use Summize (aka Search.Twitter.com) and find tweets about “Gregor Robertson” or “Peter Ladner”. 14 tweets on Gregor Robertson (two of mine, and full disclosure, I said I liked him). 8 tweets on Peter Ladner.
Now, do the same for any of the following keywords: Obama, HRC (Hillary Rodham Clinton), National Democratic Convention (NDC). I just did a quick one for Obama and I couldn’t count the number of tweets (they were so many). I’m sure if I used another tool, I could find actual accurate stats on the emphasis that has been given to the US election.
As a scholar who has taught political science, I completely understand why this happens. As a resident of Canada, I can completely understand why this happens. As a resident of Vancouver and someone who has passionately embraced the city where I have lived in for more than a decade, I am dismayed. It looks as though the interest of Twitterers in local, municipal issues is minimal.
While I am absolutely not afraid of retaliation or criticism, I would seriously like to encourage people who live in Vancouver to think about, talk about and discuss the ideas of those people whose decisions will influence YOUR lives. YOUR local livelihood is at stake.
I am not at all asking my readers (particularly my Canadian readers, as I know that I’ve got quite a few from abroad) to stop thinking about or discuss US politics. It’s important. Heck, even I wrote about it (when I complained about the really sad fact that Obama and Clinton had to face-off, because they both would be breaking stigmas and old paradigms).
I just want people to take more of an interest in local politics. And no, it’s not because I’m now in the ballot of the Vancouver Election Contest. I had been ruminating this post since I started getting flooded with tweets about the US National Democratic Convention, the Hillary Rodham Clinton speech, the Barack / Michelle Obama speech, the Joseph Biden speech. Of course, I admire them. I have previously expressed my admiration for Obama and for Clinton. But it came to a point where I was just like “ok, this is a little bit too much“.
I do hope (and expect!) that my Twitter friends will do the same thing when the Vancouver mayoral election draws nearer and I expect (and want!) a barrage of tweets about the local elections. The best way to effect change is to get involved. And I want my Twitter and blogger friends to get involved in issues that will affect them the same or more than the outcome of the US elections.
Random Thoughts of a Student of the Environment 