A call to action

I'll echo the many commentators who have complimented the effort made by Stephen Gordon and others at Count Me In!. But it's worth noting one slightly surprising aspect of the site.

Of the four "Act now!" options, all seem to be oriented toward one-time expressions of opinion, with only one (the NDP's Twitter tool) having any associated reach to one's social connections. And that seems to me to miss the type of influence that's most likely to sway the Cons.

Granted, the decision will ultimately have to be reversed at the cabinet level - so it's important that input eventually feed back to MPs. But we should have learned by now (as the Star-Phoenix editorial board notes today) that Stephen Harper will happily use a claim of "they're all against us" as a fund-raising and organizing tool rather than paying attention to fact-based criticism - as long as it doesn't upset the political balance the Cons have managed to set up.

With that in mind, the motivation most likely to get Harper to move from what's now an entrenched position is the recognition that it's doing more to build an opposing base than to fire up his own. And that means it's worth pointing out the Cons' vandalism and its effect on Canadian lives to our less politically-inclined connections - since it's their addition to the movement that figures to get Harper backpedaling.