OTTAWA - Canadian political parties tried to boost their profiles by harnessing the reach of the Internet, but it was the people themselves who wielded the power of the online world during the campaign, experts say.
"Their attempts at something cutting edge resulted in headlines around pooping puffins and things that are largely juvenile and totally ineffective," said Michael Geist, an Internet and e-commerce law professor at the University of Ottawa.
"Certainly, I don't think there's any reason to believe the political parties get the Net."
Canadian parties had hoped to pull a few tactics from Barack Obama's online campaign playbook.
Through the web, the presidential hopeful has constructed a successful two-way conversation with supporters and stirred a massive fundraising drive.
Canadian political parties also took their campaigns to cyberspace with interactive websites like Facebook and Twitter, but failed to make a major impression, Geist said.
He said politicians chose to guide the message with rigid scripts and well-drafted policies.
"The Internet, in some ways, recoils against that kind of top-down control."
Instead, Geist said Canadian interest groups and individuals were the ones who drove election issues using the web.
He said the organizing potential of online vote-swapping groups may impact election results, but it's YouTube that proved especially potent during the campaign.
The three-minute video "Culture in peril" by prominent Quebec artist Michel Rivard helped spread outrage in the province against proposed Conservative cuts to arts and culture funding.
The video, which had attracted more than 580,000 hits by Tuesday evening, knocked Tory hopes in Quebec into a tailspin.
"(Rivard's video) was clearly far more effective than any of the competing claims by the various parties in crystallizing the issue in just a couple of minutes, which is exactly what a good YouTube video can do," Geist said.
Canadians also jolted the election by uncovering the unacceptable "online footprints" of candidates, said University of Toronto strategic management professor Sandford Borins.
Candidates have never faced a vetting process with such scrutiny and several were dismissed for their offensive web postings.
Borins said Internet use by individuals led to a more transparent election campaign where citizens played impact roles.
"I'd say yeah, it's good for democracy, all told," he said.
Borins said Obama's campaign has proven to be the most effective political use of the Internet one could imagine at this stage, thanks in part to a charismatic speaking style that interacts well with the technology.
Canadian campaigns simply don't have the same mass appeal or the same amount of time, he said.
"The American system, with the primaries that go on for so long, does tend to favour online electioneering."
Obama has grabbed the attention of millions of American youth through social networking websites, text messaging and even online video game ads.
Geist said Obama's site, mybarackobama.com, encourages Democrats to organize events that are supportive of the campaign, but not overseen by the campaign.
"Obama has recognized the enormous power of essentially crowd-sourcing his message and empowering his supporters," Geist said.
