Lots of good signs at the Prorogue Protests.

I attended the Ottawa demonstration and it was terrific. I was quite shocked, really, at the age distribution of the crowd (many as old as me!) and surprised that few seemed to be visible partisans for any of the parties (though the NDP should have refrained from printing up signs in their colours).

But mostly what I wondered about was the real point of these demos -- as well attended as they were -- which seemed to be called mostly to "legitimize" the anti-prorogation sentiment in the view of the media pundits and right wing bloggers, who seem to think that hundreds of thousands of like-minded people gathering on facebook is meaningless, whereas getting thousands out to physical rallies really matters.

Well, I dunno. The real proof of this nascent movement, I think, will be at the ballot box, and I'm not sure how physical protests move us farther ahead than interacting with each other on facebook, or other online social media. The other proof of the potentency of this movement, at least for me, will be the degree to which it embraces the only electoral strategy that can possibly defeat Harper -- which is strategic voting to defeat conservatives.

My fear is that we'll be suckered by media and right wing pundits into proving our bona fides by organizing and attending more and more, bigger and bigger physical rallies, instead of just working online to influence voters, which is what we need to do.

Which is to say that, in contrast to what the media say, I think facebook may well be a more important organizing tool than organizing endless physical demonstrations just because pundits and partisans (incorrectly I think) have come to associate these with successful political action.

- B

Reckless media coverage
John Martin, Special to the Times
Published: Tuesday, January 26, 2010

For the most part, Canadians are well served by the country's media. But one has to wonder about the endless attention journalists are devoting to the prorogation of Parliament. A month ago, the word "prorogue" was not even part of the vocabulary of 90 per cent of Canadians. In the last few weeks, however, it has become the one and only issue for pundits, columnists and editorial writers.

http://www2.canada.com/chilliwacktimes/news/story.html?id=0f2b1953-6c1e-4207-b074-f97f6767a1b9

So that in itself is good. LOL

Beyond that I think many of the media relate to the demonstrations of the 60s, and aren't really connected to things like Facebook and Twitter. In other words, their age is showing. :)