Social media muscles flexing in Brandon

BRANDON -- It's a revolution waiting for a catchy name.

While highly paid political consultants struggle to find a way to utilize the Internet's social networking capabilities in order to win election campaigns and advance their causes, a rag-tag collection of members of a Brandon-based Internet discussion forum has stumbled upon an approach that has produced dramatic results.

In response to a city budget that would cause a double-digit increase to many Brandonites' property taxes, members of ebrandon.ca used social media to communicate their concerns, and created an online petition calling for Brandon city council "to stop proceeding with the current budget as proposed."

"I,àand some other people, felt that this tax hike, linked to a massive spending increase, was simply beyond the capacity of most people to pay, and does not reflect the difficult economic times we are in," petition organizer Kerry Auriat told the Brandon Sun.

"So we simply said we should try this petition. Iàliterally anticipated a couple of dozen names. Iàdid not expect the amount of anger and frustration that there is with the ever-changing stories coming out of city hall."

Auriat told me that "it's caught fire, and it hasn't cost us a penny."

Despite the fact the petition was largely ignored by the local media, more than 1,000 Brandonites signed it in just 10 days. If that doesn't sound that impressive, it is the population-adjusted equivalent of 15,000 Winnipeggers.

The rapid growth of the petition has the attention of Brandon's mayor and city councillors, who each received an email after every new signature.

Hours after the Brandon Chamber of Commerce emailed a link to the petition to its members, city council took the unprecedented step of rescinding the interim budget they had passed in December.

They are going back to the budgetary drawing board.

In response to suggestions an online petition carries less weight than the conventional paper version, Auriat says "If you want people to feel cynical about the system, tell them that a petition they signed doesn't carry any water. I think that would be a remarkably stupid thing for any elected official to do."

Though Auriat has no political aspirations of his own, he now stands as leader of a political movement that has the power to impact the outcome of Brandon's 2014 municipal election. He has a list of over 1,000 potential candidates, donors and workers prepared to be part of a campaign aimed at fair taxation and responsible leadership in Brandon.

Manitoba's Progressive Conservatives and Liberals should be doing what Auriat has done as part of their efforts to rebuild their parties, expand their membership lists and remain relevant.

My teenaged daughter, the social media expert in the family, has a simple answer -- "It's because the people running those parties aren't young and hip. They are clueless when it comes to the real power of social media. It's as if they've never heard of the Arab Spring."

The next municipal, provincial and federal elections won't occur until 2014-15.

That creates a two-year political vacuum that the Tories and Liberals can seize upon in order to build momentum toward the next provincial election in 2015. By following Auriat's template, they have the next two years to use social media as a low-cost, time-efficient means of creating a grassroots movement in communities throughout the province.

Though some may question whether such a strategy would work in a larger centre like Winnipeg. There is no plausible reason why it shouldn't. All it requires is an issue that a cross-section of the public is concerned about and Internet venues where individuals can share their concerns. The venues already exist and, after 12 years of NDP rule, there is no shortage of issues.

While the Tories and Liberals may be hesitant to embark on a strategy they have never utilized before, they really don't have a choice.

After what has happened in Brandon, it is only a matter of time before Manitobans realize they no longer need the old-line political parties in order to advance the causes they care about and accomplish the change they desire.

If that happens, they might wonder why Manitobans need the Progressive Conservative and Liberal parties.

Deveryn Ross is a Brandon political commentator.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 26, 2012 A11