David Miller, Toronto's mayor, has a MySpace page. Awesome. He's not blogging there (yet?), but his full profile is posted (Mayor Miller is a Capricorn) as is a video about the future of Toronto and how young people are important to that future.
I don't know if this will get younger voters more interested in politics; though Miller has 222 friends and counting. But he gets 2 thumbs up for trying something different. And I think he actually has the personality and the authenticity to pull off having a MySpace page. I think of other Canadian politicians .. they couldn't have a page (Stephen Harper on MySpace .. can you imagine?). But Miller *gets it*.
I know these are early days yet in political candidates using social media, but I have such high hopes. If we can nail the use of the technology of it, then maybe it can change the content of the discourse. I mean, people aren't interested in politics because they don't see it as relelvant to them, right? And talking heads in debates and attack-ads are still not going to be relevant. But social media, these channels force the conversation to be different. To be relevant and authentic. They force it to be a conversation. Because all of a sudden everyone of my constituents has a voice that is equal to mine.
Is that too naive? Too Pollyanna-ish? Maybe. But I do believe the medium changes the nature of the message. And a MySpace page is a first step to shaping a conversation.
Thanks to Torontoist for the pointer!
Tags: toronto, Mayor David Miller, Social Media and Politics