Blogging is grassroots

The campaign is coming up and its coming quickly.

Blogging has become the new medium for getting the message out and, more importantly, getting it past the filter.

At the beginning of this year, I co-founded Blogging Tories, a grassroots organization of Conservative Party supporters that do not hesitate to express their opinions, point out media bias, and hold the Liberals and the NDP to account. They do this without compensation and thus their message comes from the strength of their beliefs. Blogging Tories is the case-study of grassroots activism.

In fact, as I have noted before, there seems to be more Canadian conservative-minded bloggers in the ‘blogosphere’ than there are on the left. The conclusion that I have derived is that conservative opinion is stifled by the mainstream media and has not generally been heard.

Until now.

publicationban.jpgBlogging has given a voice to those without one in traditional media and now these voices are being heard. Most recently, members of the Blogging Tories were instrumental in forcing the lid off of the Jean Brault testimony as Judge Gomery has now realized that publication bans cannot exist in the modern media climate; they cannot exist in the modern media climate that we have defined. Indeed, since this shift in media delivery after the advent of blogs, laws and unjust laws are being redefined concerning personal and press freedoms.

The Conservative Party of Canada is synonymous with the Grassroots. It is indeed the Grassroots Party of Canada. Therefore, blogging and Conservative make the perfect marriage of activism and desire for change.

The 2004 Presidential election campaign witnessed the first election in world history which exploited the potential of blogs to the fullest extent. From the automatic organization of neighbourhood parties for Bush to Meetups for Kerry, the blogging phenomenon enabled the American political class to appeal to the grassroots for help in delivering their the message.

The Conservative Party of Canada needs the blogosphere to deliver its message. In fact, citizens need the blogosphere to bypass the CBC, CTV and other mainstream media outlets to vent their anger and express their hope for change to their countrymen. While the CBC asks Canadians if they want an election right now (Liberal talking point), the blogosphere allows Canadians to tell each other that they don’t want an American style 10 month election campaign (Conservative talking point).

Conservatives gather around blogs for warmth in a cold and hostile media environment. From this small hopeful light in the darkness, conservatives spread the message to others open to positive change and re-establishment of our country’s pride. This is the grassroots and this is our time.

If you question the power of blogging in political campaigns, Google “Conservative Party of Canada” and check me out. I’m the 7th result as of the time of this post, and my name is the first person’s name that appears.

And I’m not even running. Maybe I should.

EDA takes notice

I received this note today from Chris Taylor (no relation). His riding EDA wrote up this piece for a newsletter that was distributed to the membership. Nods like this are quite encouraging.

The Conservative Blogosphere

Now the above sounds more like something gooey than something electronic, doesn’t it? But it could be the most important development among conservative grassroots in North America since the first tavern was built!

You all know about the Internet, and the World Wide Web. Well, a “blog” (short for “weblog”) is just another kind of website, programmed to make it very simple to publish one’s thoughts and photographs as one comes up with them. An online diary or “log”, in some cases, and commentary about current events in others. A few go so far as to provide political or philosophical commentary, and among those “bloggers” conservatives seem to be in the majority! Taken all together, they are referred to as the “blogosphere”.

And there you have it. A way to get around the so-called liberal monopoly in the news media, or better still, to hold them to account. Each blog lists a “blogroll” of the author’s favourite blogs, and thus the best of them are all connected to one another in a virtual web of excellence. The best bloggers, who publish clear and thoughtful posts daily or even more often, are viewed by thousands of, including many journalists. It takes dedication, and there is no reward but honour from your peers — but is that not true of all grassroots activism?

In fact, some Conservative Members of Parliament, including Monte Solberg and Stephen Fletcher, have blogs on their own websites. And there you will see a refreshing frankness and spontenaiety found nowhere else in politics.

Many if not most of the conservative blogs in Canada are listed by BloggingTories.ca. Some of the best bloggers in Canada belong to the ring of Red Ensign Blogs, like Stephen Taylor (whose statistical research is awesome). Some are self-named, like Stephen Taylor’s, while others have way-over-the-top names like Shiny Happy Gulag. Many are thoughtful and funny, some are outrageous, and most of them will make you think.

And if you think something has been left unsaid, or that there is a niche unfilled in the “blogosphere”, then you can easily start your own blog, either by registering at blogger.com or by downloading blog software for your own website from wordpress.org. With daily dedication and thoughtfulness you can be famous too!

Paul Connor

Pettigrew out

pierre-pettigrew.jpgDeciding to exit politics by personal choice rather than that of the electorate, which was sure to come in the next General Election, Le Devoir reports that Pierre Pettigrew is planning to leave the federal scene for potential headship at the Organization of American States.

As I speculated earlier, Pettigrew is one of the most vulnerable Liberals in caucus given his meager margin of victory during last year’s election. He beat the Bloc candidate with by a margin of 2.77%. His mismanagement of the Arar file and the Liberals’ dwindling fortunes in Quebec make exiting ‘on his own terms’ a wise move by the current Minister of Foreign Affairs.