donpeat.com

Dalton McGuinty's photo on his new twitter account

With much fanfare late in August, the Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, announced he’s on Twitter.

His Twitter account can be found here

Really? Just now you are on Twitter? Was my immediate response.

Now, a few days later, the only logical question is how out of touch is this guy?

Don’t get me wrong Mr. Premier, lots of people – my parents included – aren’t on Twitter and that is perfectly okay.

But you’re not lots of people, you’re the leader of the largest province in Canada.

Here’s why it matters.

The four-year-old social network that is fast becoming bigger than Facebook is used by almost everyone famous from the quintessential Twitter tweeter Justin Bieber, 16, to 79-year-old William Shatner.

Countless news stories about celebrities have been generated by their own posts on Twitter – Mr. Premier they’re called Tweets – and many stories now glean official comment or initial comment from celebs Twitter pages.

But forget about the stars.

Lots of politicians are on Twitter from Toronto’s own Mayor David Miller to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s likely wouldn’t have won the election, let alone his party’s nomination, had his campaign team not first conquered social networking.

And heck, the leaders of Ontario’s two other major political parties – Tim Hudak and Andrea Horwath – have been cranking out Twitter posts for ages.

So in a world where what happens online matters more and more and where politicians who aren’t in touch online could be swept aside, it isn’t surprising “Premier Dad” now wants to be a part of the Twittersphere.

He’s trying, like the parent that tries to be hip when he feels the kids (and the times) are, as Bob Dylan once sang, a changin’.

So far, his tweets show he likes to read, likes to watch the premium cable channels and likes to canoe.

What will be hard for the premier, considering how tightly scripted and “on message” he usually operates, may be showing he is anything like a regular guy as he tweets away.

Maybe he’ll get the hang of it and maybe he won’t.

His record over the last two terms rather than his tweet track record will likely be what voters care about more in next year’s provincial election.

But there is still something troubling to me as someone under 30, in a province where Mr. McGuinty has routinely touted the knowledge economy as our only hope for the future, is just now experimenting with something as simple as Twitter.

Perhaps it is a DM (Mr. Premier that is Twitter-speak for Direct Message) to Ontario voters that the man known as the Education Premier has some urgent learning to do.

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I’m a terrible blogger.

I realize this likely isn’t the best thing to type on the Internet – particularly when I could one day be applying for a media job where blogging is the primary task – but I’ll risk it.

I started this blog back in university as my official election website.

This was the first incarnation of donpeat.com

Yes, my name is Don and I’m a recovering student politician.

After I won the election, I didn’t really use the blog again until I went to Honduras for seven months.

I had just graduated from UWO with my Masters in Journalism and was working for an English-language weekly newspaper there. The blog was a way to keep in touch with friends and colleagues back in Canada and to post some of my work.

Let’s face it when you’re traveling a lot, a blog sure is easy to write and more likely to be interesting for people to follow.

When I came back to Canada, the blog writing took a back seat to newspaper writing and days of ignoring the site turned into months which turned into years.

My job is writing so after a day of writing – I wrote over 600 news stories last year and I’m already over 500 news stories this year – so coming home and writing a blog isn’t exactly the first thing on my to do list.

But I like to write and it seems to be a waste to have a place where I can go and write whatever I want.

So here I am, almost five years later and I’m going to make a new effort to blog more.

From what I can tell, the key to any good blog is consistency.

I will make an effort to be consistent but I will also try not to post frivolously.

I’m not sure what I will be blogging about – likely whatever strikes my mood and whatever I’m interested in at the time.

Feel free to give me feedback, it is appreciated.

Cheers,

Don

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