Weekly Report: Alberta Election for Week of Feb. 22, 2008

A news video by Matt Solberg of Newswatch on a Medicine Hat Oil Company, Reece Energy, was the most viewed YouTube video during the third week of the four-week Alberta Election campaign. The Real Alberta PC activist group attack video “Ed Stelmach - Don't Worry Be Happy”, which had the most views last week, still remained high in vews this week. A notably use of YouTube this week comes from AlbertaVotes2008, which had the Alberta's Green Party Leader George Read broadcast on YouTube during the party leaders debate because of election rules that stipulate only leaders who have a seat in the legislature can participate in televised political debates. Videos posted by AlbertaVotes2008 were the first Alberta Green Party presence on YouTube during this election, although the viewership numbers were relatively low. Beyond those items, the controversy over Conservative Party supporters being able to work for Elections Alberta still remained high in views.  In the Facebook top five, all but one of the groups are anti-PC.  This indicates that the Web 2.0 front is being used by opposition and the other parties' supporters for an attack purpose.

Facebook

Party Leader Facebook Supporters

1. Kevin Taft Personal Profile (Alberta Liberals): 730 friends (up by 37 from last week)
2. Ed Stelmach Fan Club (Progressive Conservatives): 449 member (up by 34 from last week)
3. Re-Elect Brian Mason, Edmonton Highlands-Norwood (NDP): 363 members (up by 23 from last week)
4. George Read (Green Party of Alberta): 226 members (down by 47 from last week)
5. Paul Hinman (Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta): 111 members (up by 56 from last week)

Top Five Facebook Groups for the Alberta Election

1. I’m Voting for Kevin Taft and the Alberta Liberal Team: 766 members (up 81 from last week)
2. Liberals in Alberta – We Do Exist: 504 members (up 7 from last week)
3. Ed Stelmach is “Trying” to Destroy Alberta: 459 members (down 4 members from last week)
4. Re-Elect Brian Mason, Edmonton Highlands-Norwood (NDP): 363 members (up by 23 from last week)
5. Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta: 353 (up by 35 from last week)

Other Facebook Groups of Note by Party

1. My Vote is for the Environment in the 2008 Alberta Elections: 222 members (not ranked last week)
2. Progressive Conservative Youth of Alberta: 210 members (up by 2 from last week)
3. Support Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta: 125 members (up by 57 from last week)
4. Alberta NDP: 115 members (up by 16 from last week)

Party Websites

POLITICAL PARTY	Mailing List	Media Clips	RSS Feeds	Direct Links to Candidates	Summary of Key Issues on Front Page	Political Speech Text	Facebook	YouTube	Podcasts	Flickr	Twitter
PC	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Linked to	No	No direct link	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Liberal	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Linked to	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
NDP	Yes	A link is provided, but not overly used.	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Green	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Linked to	No	No direct link	Yes	No	No	No
Wildrose Alliance	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Linked to	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No

The table above builds off of the Political Scientist Sandford Borins's interesting initial analysis of each political party’s website on the first day of the election. The PC party website has now come alive, counter to Borins's initial critique. Out of all of the parties, they are using the most media channels to keep in touch with the electorate. Borins attributes their professionally designed website to the strong funding the party has built up over the years, and will be interesting to see if the money pays off in votes and more party funding. Overall, all parties are now effectively using YouTube in the campaign, and it seems that all of the political parties are attempting to use the Internet to the greatest effect at this point in the race, offering unique ways to get involved in the campaigns. This is contrast to other elections in Canada, where parties had not developed their Internet presence to this level. Some unique uses of on-line media include the NDP's list of top priorities and the Liberal's posting of all of Kevin Taft's speeches. The NDP's use of a priority list is reminiscent of the Federal Conservative's use of a Key Issues pane during the 2006 election campaign, which is still posted on their website. Lastly, the Alberta PCs have an animated Ed Stelmach character that is interesting to play with, but could be viewed by some as distracting like Microsoft's notorious paperclip animation.

YouTube

Ed Stelmach (Leader of the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party)

Title	Upload Date	Views Last Week	Affiliation	Tone
1. Ed Stelmach - Don't Worry Be Happy	September 25, 2007	975	Lobby Group: RealABPC	Negative
2. Who should i vote Forr??	February 18, 2008	556	Unknown	Positive
3. Alberta Is Having an Election!	February 4, 2008	547	Vlogger	Negative
4. Ed Stelmach on Human Rights, Cartoons, and uhhhh, Peace	February 17, 2008	526	Lobby Group: BringBackReform	Negative
5. Ed Stelmach - Bucket List	February 20, 2008	446	Vlogger	Negative

Kevin Taft (Leader of the Alberta Liberal Party)

Title	Upload Date	Views Last Week	Affiliation	Tone
1. Kevin Taft: The Next Alberta	February 13, 2008	917	Alberta Liberal Party	Positive
2. Meet Kevin Taft	February 5, 2008	635	Alberta Liberal Party	Positive
3. PC Returning Officers Scandal - CBC Calgary	February 14, 2008	446	Vlogger	Neutral
4. Return to Sender	February 14, 2008	372	Vlogger Streaming News Media	Neutral
5. Kevin Taft on Tory CRO appointments	February 16, 2008	178	Alberta Liberal Party	Positive

Brian Mason (Leader of the Alberta NDP)

Title	Upload Date	Views Last Week	Affiliation	Tone
1. Alberta's NDP - In your corner. On your side.	February 22, 2008	179	NDP	Positive
2. Alberta's NDP - Message from Brian Mason	February 21, 2008	157	NDP	Positive
3. Brian Mason sings with Trooper	October 12, 2007	141	Vlogger	Neutral
4. Who Is Tim Stock-Bateman? I'm Tim Stock-Bateman	February 3, 2008	127	NDP	Neutral
5. Deron Bilous and Brian Mason call Election '08	February 4, 2008	107	NDP	Positive

George Read (Leader of the Alberta Green Party)

Title	Upload Date	Views Last Week	Affiliation	Tone
1. PART 4/11: Alberta Leaders Debate - Need for Leadership	February 21, 2008	252	AlbertaVotes2008	Neutral
2. PART 11/11: Alberta Leaders Debate - Closing Remarks	February 22, 2008	135	AlbertaVotes2008	Neutral
3. PART 6/11: Alberta Leaders Debate - Environment & Economy	February 22, 2008	94	AlbertaVotes2008	Neutral
4. PART 5/11: Alberta Leaders Debate - Oil Sands Development	February 22, 2008	89	AlbertaVotes2008	Neutral
5. PART 8/11: Alberta Leaders Debate - People on the Edge	February 22, 2008	79	AlbertaVotes2008	Neutral

Paul Hinman (Leader of the Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta)

Title	Upload Date	Views Last Week	Affiliation	Tone
1. STALEmach	February 14, 2008	200	Wildrose Alliance Party	Positive
2. Tax Relief	February 14, 2008	175	Wildrose Alliance Party	Positive
3. Bunk	February 13, 2008	63	Wildrose Alliance Party	Positive
4. Education	February 13, 2008	53	Wildrose Alliance Party	Positive
5. Infrustruction	February 22, 2008	41	Wildrose Alliance Party	Positive

"Alberta Election"

Title	Upload Date	Views Last Week	Affiliation	Tone
1. Reece Energy	February 19, 2008	1686	Vlogger	Negative: Ed Stelmach
2. Meet Kevin Taft	February 5, 2008	635	Alberta Liberal Party	Positive: Kevin Taft
3. Meet Tim Vant, Edmonton-Strathcona	February 14, 2008	553	Alberta Liberal Party	Positive: Alberta Liberals
4. Alberta Is Having an Election!	February 4, 2008	547	Vlogger	Negative: Ed Stelmach
5. Ed Stelmach on Human Rights, Cartoons, and uhhhh, Peace	February 17, 2008	526	Vlogger	Negative: Ed Stelmach