Twitter takes the Hill

OTTAWA — Liberal MP Carolyn Bennett’s silent morning chant goes like this: “I will remember to tweet. I will remember to tweet.”

It seems to be working. The Toronto physician, 57, is no slouch on Twitter, the latest social-media tool she and more than five dozen other MPs have embraced to varying degrees in a multi-pronged quest to communicate with constituents and woo potential new voters, especially young Canadians, who, as NDP Leader Jack Layton puts it, have grown up “talking with their thumbs.”

MPs concede Twitter is a minor player in terms of the number of people they connect with, and that it is no substitute for the hundreds of thousands of people reached through e-mail, regular household mailings, town hall meetings and knocking on doors.

But, they contend, it’s just smart politics to use all available tools — everything from blogs to Facebook to YouTube.

“We have to do them all. Young people are not coming to my town hall meetings, but they are finding me online,” said Bennett, a self-described BlackBerry addict.

Posting a tweet on Twitter isn’t complicated; it’s similar to writing a very short e-mail because it can be no longer than 140 characters — or a couple of dozen words.

The name of the game is to set up a Twitter account and then try to attract followers — some of whom might re-tweet or re-post your messages and keep your audience growing.

Of the 68 MPs on Twitter at the end of last week, 25 were Tories, 24 were Liberals, 17 were New Democrats and two were Bloc Quebecois.

Some tweet several times a day. Some tweet once or twice a week. And some let months go by without a tweet.

They talk about what they are doing for work or fun, who they are meeting with, and what they have learned from following others on Twitter. Sometimes they even provide a news tip.

Some tweets are funny, smart and informative. Others are boring, routine and raise the question, who cares? Still others qualify as shameless self-promoting.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is a keener. The Calgary MP is quick to tweet positive reviews of question period performances by his Conservative cabinet colleagues.

He also toots his own horn, firing off tweets that include links to news stories about such activities as his recent trip to Toronto to offer personal and moral support to a Chinatown grocer facing assault and other charges for catching a suspected thief.

Of course, Kenney doesn’t have the corner on cheerleading tweets. Liberal MP Sukh Dhaliwal, for example, had something to say after Ignatieff introduced a non-confidence motion in the Commons last Thursday: “Just coming out of Michael’s speech. He rocked the House.”

But Liberal Ujjal Dosanjh is the hands-down winner as the MP who tweets the most. But the B.C. MP also has a well-earned reputation as a tedious Twitter user with such updates as; “time to rest since I am up 5 am,” or “on the green bus to HOC,” or “on my way to QP.”

Liberal MP Mark Holland is among the majority of the MPs in the 308-seat House of Commons who have not signed on to Twitter.

He sees it as an “info-dumping” medium and says he cannot find a compelling reason to start tweeting.

“You can’t get very much in 140 characters,” he says. “It tends to lend itself to a lot of really useless information.”

According to a tally put together by the website Politwitter, the four party leaders have the most followers.

At the end of last week, Stephen Harper boasted 19,302. He was followed by Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff at 12,687, Layton at 11,235 and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe at 2,607.

Don’t get sucked in though. There’s nothing personal about Harper’s tweets. He doesn’t even carry a BlackBerry.

They are produced by staffers who are under strict orders to focus on government business. In short, the Harper team tweets links to news releases and texts of speeches by the leader or other Conservatives.

And don’t look for a Harper blog either. “The joy of being prime minister is that people usually cover what you say,” says his spokesman, Andrew MacDougall.

Other party leaders rely on staff to backstop them on Twitter. But they clearly have a bigger hand in writing their own tweets and often allow a little of the personal to creep in.

On World Alzheimer’s Day, for example, Ignatieff wrote: “I remember my mom & grandmom, both of whom died of the disease. Need research $$$.”

Green Leader Elizabeth May, who doesn’t have a seat in the Commons, says she’s pushing herself to Twitter more.

“Anything that proves a user-friendly tool for citizen to access their political representatives is a big plus,” said May, who has 5,228 followers.

But, she says, people have to remember that Twitter, Facebook and other new social media outlets don’t reach huge and significant chunks of the population.

“I find within the Greens, part of my job is to keep reminding people that there are people out there who are like my 84-year-old dad living in a remote community who do not have a computer,” she says.

Alberta Conservative Blake Richards says getting on Twitter was a no-brainer for him. At 34, he says Twitter as one of the best ways to reach voters his age and younger.

Elected a year ago, Richards says he has already been dubbed “Twitter King” by some of his colleagues and thinks tweeting has helped raise his profile in Ottawa and back home.

NDP MP Libby Davies of Vancouver says Twitter is a “fun, somewhat cheeky” way to stay connected with people across the country.

“It’s almost like you get these little snippets of what’s going on and it makes people feel like they’re re connected, that they are in the loop, especially (those) from B.C. where it feels so far away.”

Though Layton says he sees Twitter’s potential to mobilize people, the former university professor and author of two books is not as gung ho as some.

Layton admits he counts on Olivia Chow, his younger, trendier wife and fellow NDP MP, to keep him abreast of what’s hot and not on Twitter.

“I’m just an old prof who finds it difficult to reduce complex issues to 140 characters,” he said. – Ottawa Citizen

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