CalgaryLiberal

I started this post more as an email to a friend who asked what were some tools and websites that I knew that recorded votes and held politicians accountable. Well, I sent off that email (with only three or four key websites) and after thinking about it for a while I realized I could create a much larger and much better list of tools  for every political activist tool belt.

So here are my top 12 tools to keep Ottawa accountable.

13 How’d They Vote .ca

Website: http://howdtheyvote.ca/

This tool records all the votes of members of parliament. You can track a specific MP, a specific party, and look at votes on specific pieces of legislature with an eye on the previous two filters.

This isn’t the greatest thing about the website, however. The great thing is that you can actually get the XML data, API, and .csv files off the website to create widgets on your own page, tools, and new bits of data based on howdtheyvote data. This makes the website a tool that’s useful in of itself but a spectacular base for other tools to form off of.

12. Democracy Watch

Website: http://www.dwatch.ca/

Democracy Watch is a website-based activist organization that has, over the last few years, been instrumental in organizing and putting forth ideas on accountability and access with regards to government. At their website they have quite a bit of information about politics and their attempts to inform the public about reform along with engendering accountability.

11. Polling Companies

Not quite a tool per se but an adequate judge of what is happening in Ottawa at the moment. This is why I have this “tool” at number 11, seeing that it isn’t something a regular person can use to influence people (unless they wanted to pay for a poll by these folks) and can only be used as a source of information on the stature of parties in Ottawa.

Top companies:

Ekos

Nanos

Environics

Harris Decima

Noval

PollingReport.ca (This is a really good website–it brings several polls together in one, easy accessible webpage)

Angus Reid (Once in a while they’ll poll Canadians)

Ipsus

And if you’re on twitter and want a quick list of these pollsters I have a list on twitter just for you.

10. Politwitter

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cka_politwit

Website: http://politwitter.ca/

Politwitter is the brainchild of self identified “super patriotic Canadian” Trevor May. It catalogues, records, and showcases the tweets and hashtags of the political community in Canada and in the provinces. It assigns media scores to major politicians federally and collects massive amounts of data on the activities of partisan politicos.

I find this tool quite useful when I am researching the positions of politicians, keeping up to date on topics being discussed by political tweeters, and watching the total activity of the grassroots of political parties.

9. RankYourRep

Site: http://rankyourrep.com/

RankYourRep.com is a source to see the comments of people on specific politicians, from Alderman to Prime Minister. It is a novel tool that I have utilized to research information on the opinions of people, opposition talking points, and target areas of specific politicians (ei: there are a lot of anti-marijuana posts on one politician’s comment page–this means that a population of people have strong feelings about a position he/she has taken).

The rankings of politicians are also pretty useful. One problem with this site is that it only ranks incumbents, which opens it up to anti-incumbency selection bias in its voting schemes and doesn’t include challenging politicians.

8. Newspapers:

Sites:

Canada Free Press (Slant: Conservative)

National Post (Slant: Conservative), with rapid new with its blogging mini-community

The Globe and Mail (Slant: Conservative/Liberal, it flips between writers), specifically the Ottawa Notebook

Toronto Star (Slant: Liberal/Toronto)

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Slant: Neutral, and shifts left/right depending on the author of a piece)

Winnipeg Free Press (Slant: No clue.)

Toronto Sun (Slant: Toronto)

Calgary Herald (Slant: Conservative)

Hill Times (My favorite place for quick, non-partisan information on what’s happening in Ottawa)

Newspapers, especially their political sections, are hugely useful in finding out what is happening in Ottawa.

7. Canadian Press, Ottawa

Twitter: http://twitter.com/CdnPress_Ott

Site: http://www.thecanadianpress.com/

I have the twitter feed hooked up to my phone so every time something new happens I get to know in under twenty seconds through the Canadian Press twitter account. Now, the reason why I would do this is because not only do I receive news faster than quite a lot of people I get it from a source that just so happens to write the basis of the stories that a majority of the newspapers will write in the next few days. Essentially, the Canadian Press creates a substantial amount of the news articles in Canada. Through agreements with newspapers and television stations the Canadian Press gives information, stories, and articles to organizations who then market it to viewers and readers. It is, quite simply, the beginning pulse of the news in Canada.

Sadly, access to their actual articles is closed to the general public. However, their twitter account is not and neither is some of their content on their website. If you are a student you can access the Canadian Press’ website through your university’s or school board’s services, but if you are not a student you are essentially hooped in this department.

6. The political parties themselves!

Liberal Party of Canada: Website, Twitter, Facebook

Conservative Party of Canada: Website, Twitter, Facebook

Green Party of Canada: Website, Twitter

New Democratic Party of Canada: Website, Twitter

In an age with social media, websites, and an almost infinite amount of communication tools it is more than possible to log into a party’s website, get their talking points, and understand the positions/machinations of that party.

5. The politicians themselves!

Twitter: You can find quite a lot of politicians on twitter. You can do a quick search for a politician quite quickly on http://politwitter.ca/.

Websites:

Michael Ignatieff: Here.

Steven Harper: Here.

Jack Layton: Here.

Elizabeth May: Here.

If you go to politwitter you can also find a website linked to by most politicians to their own web pages.

4. Blog Aggregating Sites, and Blogs

There are websites that allow you to find quite a few blogs very quickly. Here’s my top few lists, followed by partisan aggregaters:

/r/Canada on reddit.com

CanadaBlogs

BloggingCanadians

Liberal Party– Liblogs

Liberal Party– LiberalsOnline

Liberal Party– on Blogging Canadians

Conservative Party– Blogging Tories (on twitter)

Conservative Party– on Blogging Canadians

Progressive– ProgressiveBloggers (on twitter)

Progressive– Blogging Change

New Democratic Party– New Democrats Online (on twitter)

New Democratic Party– on Blogging Canadians

Green Party– Feed (on twitter)

3. Open Parliament .ca

Site: http://openparliament.ca/

On this list this is one of my favourite websites. It catalogues the day’s news clippings of politicians and highlights everything in a quick/manageable way. It is the pet project of Michael Mulley, a Montreal programmer. It is a colourful website with plenty of easily accessible information.

If you’re a riding president or a candidate seeking to unseat a parliamentarian this is a must-have tool since it plugs in your webmail into a daily feed to any specific parliamentarian’s activities. Any politico interested in the activities of a specific politician, past votes and past activities, simply must utilize this tool. Notably, this website also includes the speeches given by individuals in the parliament as well.

2. Parliament of Canada

Site: http://parl.gc.ca/legisinfo

This is the Parliament of Canada’s official website that lists all the current bills and most recent speeches. While at times it might be a small bit clunky, it is where a majority of political staffers and citizen activists gather their data on what’s what in Ottawa’s House of Commons. It quickly lists the bills and motions of the day, and the committee work of parliamentarians.

In addition to hosting this information this website is the pre-eminent place to research online how the parliament works. Its FAQ page lists how a bill becomes law and numerous other tidbits of parliamentary strangeness.

1. Yourself.

You can start a blog.

You can start a facebook group/page.

You, you, you can volunteer, run as a candidate, write a letter to the editor, and so much more. The number one thing–the number one tool–is the actions taken by a single citizen who is engaged and ready to utilize the tools above.

This is, of course, an incomplete list. If you have any suggestions just post them below in the comments section and I’ll add them as soon as humanly possible.

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