As I make my way to Canada’s first official #usguys meetup/conference/dinner (#usguysEH) I am sifting through my Twitter feed and @samfiorella has requested folks to show off things that are quintessentially Canadian.  Whether it’s our Canadian identity being laid out by a Molson Commercial or the classic CBC signoff video from the late 90s.  Or knowing exactly what is meant when we are told to “keep out sticks on the ice”… alas there is something that is far more quintessentially Canadian, especially in spring time, often forgotten, frequently loathed, basically ignored… it’s the Canadian Election.

It feels like it has been literally weeks since the last Canadian Federal election.  Well the last one was October 2008 so maybe it has been less time than I remember… or the three years I spent living in the US just went by a lot faster than they actually did.  Either way, it seems that “social media” (pundit buzz words of the year) has take over everything and now this is marked as “Canada’s First Social Media Election.”

What does this mean?  Well one would expect that every political leader and candidate will be tweeting their every step through the election, that Facebook fan pages will be ablaze with activity pitting one candidate against the next, and that every political advertisement in Canada will be showing off the candidate’s ability to “get it” by advertising their Twitter and Facebook links.

But they’re not.  If this is Canada’s first “social media” election, then the social media strategists behind the candidates need to get a good club upside the head.  If the candidates are going to truly embrace social media and the pundits are going to be able to get off by using those two words together, then the candidates need to actually commit to using social media as part of their overall campaign strategy rather than just dancing around it with the thought that they “should” be involved somehow.

I’m a public transit user.  In order to get to my bus station (which is next to a MASSIVE collection of public service employees), I must pass by a smattering of election signs.  They show the candidates name and the party they are representing.

…

…

And that is it.  No link to a website (not even the larger party site), no @CANDIDATENAME, no F for Facebook and T for Twitter icons, and no QR Code.  Leaving me, as a former political science student and current social media dynamo, to ask the question: WTF?

If this were really a social media election for 2011, these signs (traditional media) would have ALL of these things.  I should be able to snap a picture of a QR code without breaking stride on my way to work, and instantly be fed with a particular candidate’s views, their differentiation points, and the rest of their platform.

I should be able to easily follow a particular candidate on Twitter without going through twelve steps to do so.

I should be able to connect (easily) with these individuals and share my views using DMs and @mentions.

In short, these candidates need to be social.

So whom do we blame?  Well, for me, I’m going to jump out and blame the punditry.  In such an effort to be relevant in a dying industry, it seems that they’re all just throwing out buzzwords trying to get noticed.   And the biggest problem with all of this is that it seems to be working.

Despite my negative views on the punditry and the rest of the whole Canadian political election mess, there are a few gems out there.  A very neat website (built in a day) called PoliChat actually organizes all of the candidates who are on Twitter and shows all of their tweets.  The site is organized by party, shows a total tweet count, the top hashtags, and ranks the tweets by quanitity.  The developer, SilenceIT is currently making frequent tweaks to the site itself so it’s sure to grow.

Want to see people from your Poli Sci 101 class argue about issues?  Follow #elxn41 on Twitter.

Curious to see who you should vote for?  Check out CBC’s handy little “VoteCompass” where you can see which political leader has views most like yours.  It’s actually pretty great if you’re completely confused about why Jack Layton’s moustache looks like Michael Ignatieff’s eyebrows.

So to summarize: Canada’s first social media election?  Not so much.  Canada? Yes; Media? Yes; Election? (Sigh) Yes; Social? Nope.

For more on the election follow #elxn41 on Twitter.  Have suggestions?  Comment below.  Bored?  Follow me on Twitter @peterfromottawa.

P.S. – Sorry I haven’t posted in a while.  Things have been busy.  Thanks to free wifi and a 4 hour train ride to Toronto, I seem to have a little time on my hands.