Today’s discussion is one that shines a light on the Political divide that has been built in Wasaga Beach.

In my humble opinion, this divide was able to take hold due to the online efforts of a select group of political supporters, steered by those intent on winning.

Activity on Social Media platforms started growing back in the 2010, 2011 era.

Prior to that time most municipal elections were won or lost based on a few key activities. Candidates could pay for advertisements in Newspapers, Radio or Television. News divisions of those media outlets could also present or publish their “meet the candidate” features.

Those Candidates with adequate financial resources could also spread their platform through flyer distributions.

Finally, the candidates personal efforts of knocking on doors, talking with people in their riding and having them put up support signs has traditionally been one of the most important winning strategies.

All of the above efforts relied on establishing a suitable platform and spreading the word about that platform.

Occasionally, a revealed scandal would enter the decision matrix and modify results. Such scandals were shared by the various news agencies, but the newspapers and other agencies also carefully vetted their stories.

This all changed with the introduction and growth of Social Media. Suddenly, a new tool was added to the Campaign Toolbox. But this tool is also in its “Wild West” era and has very few controls to prevent malicious manipulation.

The first municipal election impacted by social media was 2014. My observations and participation in Social Media started on August 26, 2007 when I joined Facebook. My original involvement in Facebook was the same as most people’s. I was able to search for and stay in touch with old friends, share family photos and follow certain news feeds.

Some groups/ feeds started to focus on political activity and politicians and their strategists began utilizing social media platforms as campaign tools. What a great way to reach out to constituents already engaged.

I first started commenting in some of these groups that attracted political discussions. I remember discussions where people would say, “the town needs to give us a bowling alley”. I would then enter the discussion and my contribution would be my opinion that “the town” could provide incentives, but should not actually provide us that bowling alley. These types of conversations grew and those who enjoyed the discussions all joined in.

As I have mentioned before, Mayor Brian Smith personally approached me in 2013 to head up his Social Media campaign team. For reasons discussed earlier I turned down his offer.

This was however when I first started to realize “the divide” was not something that happened accidentally. The divide most people talk of today was started way back in 2013. Its growth has been an insidious, intentional manipulation of those following social media platforms.

One other important factor in these online efforts is that for the first time, those wanting to spread false information had a tool of destruction. Instead of simply pumping up their own platforms, those desperate for a win could spread false information that harmed.

They soon learned that they could take true facts, like someone sporting a new watch or someone making an investment, and add to those facts to convert the facts to dirt. Claim a developer gifted the watch… scandal! Claim a contractor providing services to the town made identical investments… scandal!

So now, for the first time, the candidates in the 2014 election were not simply debating each others platforms, but they were now spreading rumours or defending themselves against malicious intent. Some good politicians said they would not play this dangerous nasty game. They refused to even defend themselves, believing the public would see through these ploys. They did not realize the power of the internet and many of these good candidates were defeated.

I believe that many people involved in the spread of all of the misinformation are simply our neighbours who have been influenced by lies.

Ok…. I’m trying to spread these long posts over a few days, so tomorrow we will start to discuss how politicians have taken advantage of this “tool” of opponent destruction. We will also discuss the various strategies that we have seen utilized. An important aspect will be the team-building efforts and how THAT specific activity has created and fueled the divide most people are disgusted with today. It might take a couple of days, but your shared observations are what will truly help this get noticed.

Once that has been thoroughly discussed, the most important discussion will be the final day in the series. We MUST correct this situation. Right Wing, Left Wing, Conservative, Liberal, Green… it doesn’t matter what political affiliation or support you commit to. What matters is that we find a way to recognize the manipulation we are being subjected to. I hope that final discussion in the series will start to heal “the divide”.

Sure, we can refer back these discussions to open eyes, but the focus moving forward must be to heal the divide!