The BC Leadership Race and the Politics of Facebook
Thursday, October 4th, 2007
It is now just over 2 weeks before the BC Leadership elections and it is time to start some guessing as to who will take the laurels. I have always found that, in elections it feels like one is fighting in the dark; other than scattered and unrelaible polls, there is no indicator one can look to to see how one is doing.
One completely unscientific predictor is the number of friends each of the candidates has on facebook. Here are the standings as of October 4.
Ben West: 584
Damian Kettlewell: 170
Sylvaine Zimmerman: 132
Jane Sterk: 36
Jack Etkin: none
Now, one may argue that social networking via facebook is not an reliable indicator of political choice; one may become friends with more than one candidate as a means to evaluate their choice. It is not an indication of political involvement; those who are friends of facebook may not necessarily be members of the Green Party of BC and thus not allowed to vote.
However, friends in facebook is a list of contacts whereby a candidate can solicit volunteers, money and support from a member’s network. So even if those within one’s facebook network are not members of the party, they can exercise significant influence on the campaign.
It will be interesting to see how facebook friends translate into Green Party votes. If there is a correlation, then it will be Ben West by a landslide; if there is no correlation, then there will be doubt cast on facebook as a tool of political efficacy.
