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Election campaign showcased blogging's power, perils - and love of snack cakes
Canadian Press via Yahoo! News ^ | 2006 Jan 22 | James McCarten

Posted on 01/23/2006 6:11:57 AM PST by Wiz

OTTAWA (CP) - They dissected the political rhetoric, offered enlightening, entertaining and sometimes ill-advised insights and even sang the praises of the humble danish and stylish yet comfortable shoes.

Some of Canada's political bloggers tackled their campaign duties with straight-faced aplomb, while others - notably the man behind Paul Martin's most critical public pronouncements - kept tongue planted firmly in pastry-packed cheek.

Informative? Usually. Influential? Occasionally. Popular? Definitely.

National Post columnist Andrew Coyne reported more than 36,000 visits Friday to his popular blog, andrewcoyne.com. Macleans columnist Paul Wells, the man behind magazine's Inkless Wells blog, saw his blog viewed an average of 16,000 times a day this month.

"I quite seriously thought I'd be blogging to a small group of campaign volunteers and possibly my Dad, on days when he didn't curl," said Scott Feschuk, the Liberal leader's principal speech writer and the thumbs behind the party's popular BlackBerry blog.

Well, OK, he didn't say it. He typed it on his BlackBerry.

"It never occurred to me that real people would be interested in the freshness of my underpants."

Though he doesn't know his hit count, Feschuk said he's received "several thousand" e-mails during the campaign. His hilarious and remarkably apolitical blog documented a range of his obsesssions from flesh-eating mutants and Star Trek to hotel soap and the loathsome fruit plates at every campaign stop.

And while it hardly qualifies as informative political discourse, the feedback from the BlackBerry blog has helped to restore a little of Feschuk's faith in the level of interest Canadians have shown in the ongoing campaign.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Canada; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: blog; canada

1 posted on 01/23/2006 6:12:00 AM PST by Wiz
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I remember about the AdScam issue discussed on Captain's Quarters, which the scandal was getting hot at that time. Captain's Quarters has done a real good job to spread the words and slamming the Liberal Party hard.


2 posted on 01/23/2006 6:15:33 AM PST by Wiz
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To: Wiz
Liberals would love to put restrictions on the free speech rights of bloggers. If they try, they will see a backlash like they've never experienced.
3 posted on 01/23/2006 6:44:53 AM PST by SoFloFreeper
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To: SoFloFreeper

The bloggers won't give them the chance.

Libs are going down the toilet as we speak, mostly due to the blogs (and the libs' own bloody arrogance.)


4 posted on 01/23/2006 9:00:59 AM PST by Unrepentant VN Vet (I can't really accept a welcome home until the last MIA does.)
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