In a CBC election‑night broadcast, technology columnist Tod Maffin reports from Vancouver on how the internet is shaping coverage of the Canadian federal election. He explains the role of blogs, chat rooms, and the cbc.ca/canadanow portal in aggregating voter sentiment. Throughout the segment, Maffin reads a series of live submissions – emails, webcam clips, and short videos – from viewers across the country. These contributions include a conservative‑leaning commentator from Alberta calling for a minority government and proportional representation, a 15‑year‑old supporter of the NDP, a young Green Party voter emphasizing environmental concerns, and a Newfoundland resident questioning the surprise victory of a local candidate. Maffin also references regional result snapshots, noting a strong Conservative showing in Alberta, a modest Liberal presence, and the impact of Green‑NDP vote splitting in British Columbia. The segment highlights CBC’s interactive tools (webcams, chat rooms, email) that allow viewers to influence the narrative in real time, while also pointing to the broader political context such as the Green Party’s limited media coverage and the ongoing debate over electoral reform.
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—didn't it? And it may well play a role in how tonight plays out. Keeping an eye on that, Tod Maffin, CBC's technology columnist. Tod's in Vancouver, as he usually is. Tod, what can you tell us tonight?
Well, Peter, you're right. Of course it will play an important role, and for a number of reasons. And tonight we are going to be checking in with a different kind of, uh, of virtual writing, as it were. Chat rooms, which is where a lot of people on the internet do gather. And in this election in particular, a group of websites known as blogs. The people who write these are bloggers. What is a blog? Essentially, it is text that people post on the internet, and they've become sort of instant pundits through the course of this election. Let me give you an example of what one looks like. One of the leading sites is Blogs Canada. If you go to their eGroup, you can see it's got a bit of text, but it's everything from analysis— this particular website here kept track of all of the mistakes that the leaders made as the campaign went along— and right down to this one, which is not a blog, but is keeping track of the predictions. Now, this is a university site. For instance, if you click on Saskatchewan, You get a sense of who the incumbents are and then a statistical model of where they think that seat is going to go. So there are lots of different options for lots of people surfing the web, and of course we'll be keeping tabs on all of this through the evening.
Fascinating. Looking forward to talking to you as the evening progresses. Tod will be an important part of After the Vote as well, a special which Ian Hanomansing will be hosting much later tonight. Ian has a long list of guests.
And will there be a clear, clear choice next time?
And Erin, when is next time going to be, do you figure?
I don't know. 8 months? 12 months? 2 years?
20 years? Well, not 20 years, we know that for sure, before the next election. Tod Maffin, what's happening on the internet at this late hour?
Well, lots of reaction from the last comment we heard on the webcam, and even though it's late, a lot of people on the East Coast, Maritimes, and Newfoundland still awake. I got this email from a person in Hants Riding, Nova Scotia, just now. It's 3 o'clock in the morning, but I caught the comment about the Maritimes. This person says, "Although we are a strong and important voice, to put this in perspective, we only elected 22 of the 135 Liberal MPs." I want to also play you a clip, just picking up off the theme that the panel was just discussing there about the different parties. I'll play you also a clip that came in off of our web cameras right here.
My name is Jeff McKenzie and I'm from Spruce Grove, Alberta. And I thought tonight's election was a reality check for politics in Canada. I think that a minority government is needed to keep the checks and balances of the Liberals at hold. As for the Conservatives, I think they also need a reality check that their far-right white ring policies is not going to go anywhere in this country. And response to the fella from Red Deer who was upset about the people in the Maritimes voting Liberal, well, we all have the right to vote who we choose regardless of the Liberal scandals. So you know what, we have to bite the bullet, and I think it's time for a new Canada, new Proportional representation where all our votes counts. Thank you and have yourself a good day at night.
Of course, the website is cbc.ca/canadanow if you want to complain about what that person said. Maybe we'll just keep going at this all night.
I love the idea that not only are we hearing from people, but we actually are engaged in a dialogue via the web. That's great. Do you have more?
I do. I have a great one that was just sent in. This was sent in earlier in the day, of course, from young people. We are getting an awful lot of emails from young people. Perhaps, of course, they're involved in technology, and perhaps they just stay up late. But here's a great one that we just got in now.
Please don't underestimate us. Despite our age, we are very politically involved and aware. We believe this election will turn out for a minority government for Canada. We believe that the Conservatives will be the best choice. Although we don't believe in parts of their platform, like the weaponization of space, we do believe that they would be the best choice for Canada in general and that Stephen Harper would be the best, the most competent candidate for Prime Minister.
Peace! Yo! Yo! Perhaps the best closing ever heard on CBC television.
I sure hope they're asleep now. I hope that they said that earlier. My 10-year-old was making political signs that he wanted to put on our lawn and I couldn't let him. So maybe I should have him do something on the webcam. I hope lots of people take up our invitation to be involved in that. And what's going on? We'll end up with 22 Conservatives 8 Liberals, 5 New Democrats, and that the total nationally for the Liberals is 135 and for the NDP 19, short of a combined majority vote in the House. We're in for some interesting days ahead. We absolutely are. And let's quickly review in Alberta, it's all Tory except for 2. David Kilgour manages to defy expectations election after election after election. He is going back to the House of Commons. Already mentioned the Deputy Prime Minister as well. And Saskatchewan, we'll get the total count on Saskatchewan So we'll come back with some of those numbers. Tod Maffin, take us to the internet.
Well, it's interesting, we've been monitoring some of the chat rooms out there, some of the discussion boards. Almost no reaction as far as the star candidates that you were talking about. That was one area that we were tracking, thinking there'd be a lot of activity on there. Here's an email that we received: I'm a student in Ottawa. I spent election night— this is very nice— with several others for an election night barbecue, which is nice. Everyone voted, and the statement which seemed to resonate with most of us was not anything said by a politician, but by Rick Mercer, another star, although not a star candidate per se. Again, another person who probably wasn't all that swayed by the so-called star candidates is this young woman that we just got through the webcam now.
I'm 15 years old, and I'm really excited to see the NDP actually be there and be an influence, because I've never seen them do anything before since I'm so young. And I support them, and I support their views, and I hope that they show that they can do a good job so that They'll get even more votes next time.
Webcam stuff coming in. Of course, we've got lots of server room, and it is at cbc.ca/canadanow.
I'm happy to know we have lots of server room. I don't understand it, but I think it's a good thing.
It is a good thing.
And we have lots of room on our plaza. We're going to check with Gloria in just a moment. Still ahead, the end of the road. Everything's a question.
Back to you, Ian.
Alright, thank you very much, Chris. Just a few seconds ago we were talking about the Green Party, what it might mean for politics nationally, and somebody fired off an email to Tod.
Just now from Nelson, B.C., of course Green Party running there, as in all of the ridings. This email: The hard thing for a few of us was voting Green even though we knew there was no hope for a seat. In the end, we voted Green because we wanted to get that 2% vote for fun. Funding, but now we fear it came at the cost of an NDP seat, namely Alex Atamanenko. Jim Gouk of course won, but that was because of the NDP-Green split. One more email: I'm saddened the Green Party didn't seem to get much media attention. I did vote for them, but feel as though Canadians are just as backwards Americans— I guess as Americans— when it comes to issues such as healthcare and the environment. And this web camera that just came in from Colin Weber in Calgary, Alberta.
Hi, my name's Colin and I'm 21 years old from Calgary.
It'll work better if I do it properly, I think.
Alright, nice to see you have the same kind of computer issues that I have all the time.
Like we all do. Today I voted for the Green Party.
The reasons for that are the environment is one of the most important things on our planet It's more important than the economy. It's more important than anything else. I see it anyway. And I think that the people that don't seriously look at this party and who don't vote for it need to seriously look at where this planet is going to be in the next 50 years, maybe even shorter than that.
That's it. You're just looking at me expectantly. It's time for me to walk away, okay? Alright. But people can reach you.
Remind them how they can do that, please. Absolutely. @cbc.ca, and I'm particularly trolling right now for comments in chat rooms and on email on the B.C. results. To say nothing of the Scandinavian combinations.
Proportional representation and first past the post.
Be more inspired, certainly young voters for sure, who've probably felt disenfranchised and alienated for a long time.
All right, don't you feel alienated just because I'm walking away from you? Because I want to check with Tod Maffin and last call from the internet.
Well, interesting discussion, especially talking about the BC dialogue. This email that we got in: I find it quite strange that one of the supposed triggers of the Liberal late rebound was the controversial Randy White interview. Surely the wise, knowledgeable voters of his district would send him home for outrageous views, but he won a gigantic 61.1% of the vote. Very strange indeed. I started trolling around in the internet chat rooms and that started pulling up quite a bit about other small town stuff. We got this in from Brian Thompson. St. John's, Newfoundland, just in now on the video camera.
I'm Brian from St. John's, and it's about 10 after 4 in the morning, and I'm just saying that I'm surprised Norman Doyle won his riding in St. John's North, um, seeing as he didn't have really any platform locally for the province. I had visited his website and Nothing there for the local, for the local people. I mean, he was just riding on the coattails of his former progressive, progressive conservative, uh, party. I mean, I was shocked. And if one was to go to the, his website, normdoyle.com, they'd see that it's in fact now under construction. It just goes to show how far a person can go on party rhetoric in today's elections.
And sure enough, Ian, if you actually go to Norm Doyle's website, it is indeed under construction.
All right, Dennis, follow me on this. We were talking about voter turnouts. Jan Gomeshi has this story.
