"John Spartan, you are fined one-half credit for a sotto voce violation of the Internet Morality Statute." - Demolition Man

"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang them" - Attributed to Cardinal Richelieu

I think the private lives of politicians can matter, but that sensationalized snapshots are probably not a reliable, representative means of evaluating character or competence. (Though it does point to a certain lack of prudence in some regards.)

Our ability to digitize data is increasingly ubiquitous, with the consequence that more of what we do and say ends up online. Once online, this data is persistent and often readily-accessible. As result, our lives are becoming increasingly less ephemeral - what goes on in Vegas no longer stays in Vegas.

In Defense of the Delete Key is a good article related to this topic.

Whoops, forgot to note that I paraphrased that quote from Demolition Man.

Being a citizen of BC, it's nice to hear commentary about our political goings-on from an outside perspective. Thanks for posting this.

It's amazing that someone who had some "racy" photos of themselves which were taken from the end of his teen years resigns and yet an adult male, who should know better, pleads no contest to a DUI and continues to run as Premier like it ain't no thing.

Not surprisingly, this matter has since died down.

One of the best bits of media coverage about this current provincial election was the following piece published in The Province

I should also add that the BC Liberals are actual a centre-right party. They are made up of former federal Reform and provincial Social Credit party members, as well as Liberals. It's one of the unique things about Canadian politicals, the provincial parties don't necessarily align properly with their federal ones. The NDP is the only Canadian party that is aligned both federally and provincially, from what I understand.

When making a decision in regards to who to vote for, the lines dividing what is and isn't couth are pretty blurry. Yeah, it's a little stupid to put so much emphasis on a risque photo; politicians are just as sexual and prone to mistakes as any other person. But not everyone may hold that same opinion, so its important to be discerning as to what you post online.

As far as a culture of optics, I think we are already there. I think we've been there for a long time. And, honestly, it seems that the better you can hide your indiscretions the farther you can go with a populace that works pretty hard to dig up dirt. Humanity seems resigned to gossip, so if you want to maintain a "high" moral standing you're going to have to work pretty hard to never put yourself in a compromising position.

We have reached a point in society where the juicier the story, the more drama-filled sensation, the better. Be it politicians, celebrities or our next door neighbors, we relish in their breakdowns and lack of couth behavior because it provides far better talking points. Who wants to talk about how much money Bono has given away (yet again) when we can ponder whether Angelina Jolie is having another baby or if Jennifer Aniston will ever again find true love. People want to hold up our government officials to higher standards when in fact it is this lack of standards that we find so greatly amusing. It is quite possible that in the 21st century, everybody in the Washington arena is at an immediate disadvantage because politics is a dirty word. The scandals of Eliot Spitzer and Gary Condit shed “negative” limelight onto our politicians, but do we really care? I am unsure if unscrupulous behavior can be equated with poor job performance, and vice versa. In the middle of the Lewinsky trial, Bill Clinton still maintained an approval rating of 63%, according to a 1998 Wall Street Journal poll. George W Bush on the other hand, never once was involved in any personal scandals and maintained an average approval rating of 28%. If somebody can get the job done, do we care what they do in their spare time, keeping in mind that these people are supposed to represent us? Suppose a picture surfaced of CLU administrators in a compromising situation – would much merit be given if every student was offered $100 to “let it slide?” By that same token, the Disneyland image is irrelevant if they get nothing accomplished. With the short attention spans of the public, some scandals can have no effect on reelection – case in point, Gavin Newsom’s issues of 2007. As less than stellar behavior of the government becomes more commonplace, the public is becoming more and more desensitized. Yes we may care for the moment, but only until ENews comes back on……

Facebook is a social networking site and all types of people participate on such sites, 13 year old girls as well as 40 year old men and women with careers. Facebook although it is supposed to show “your true colours” however, because Facebook is now such a large part of our second lives, its ability to shine the light on the true selves of people has diminished. Facebook now is so public that it people put up fronts online. Politicians have always been put on a pedestal and quite often the lives they hide from their constituents are far from the “normal” bad behaviour we see on facebook. From bribery, extortion and other financial NO NO’s... we seem to only pay attention to “ethical” issues such as escorts and homosexuality (if you call that an ethical problem), the deceit and the lies politicians hide will always exist and Facebook will not allow us to disseminate these lies because they will never post “today I bribed X, Y and Z.” Facebook will not allow us to see what we truly want to see, whether or not someone parties or groped a woman’s breast is not a true representation of how well a person is able to lead. Facebook is not able tell us how capable a person is. Web 2.0 can only give the public and the media a new media to distract the people with Web 2.0 allows the massive communicative power of useless information such as the music preference the lifestyle and personal lives of people. Distracting people from the real story, the real pitfalls of politicians. Web 2.0 is just an extension of TMZ or other very annoying media or tabloids.

The problem I see is that a politicians private life does matter to some extent, however it's very hard to draw the line on where it matters and not. However in this case I don't think anyone would really argue with the fact that a DUI is much worse then a photo like this one. I personally believe that if a politicians personal life doesn't threaten other people's life's, like this picture, it should be their own personal business. However I do like the fact that the internet might catch things, like this DUI, that may question the character of certain politicians. But its awfully hard to decide which is which at times.

The only time that the private life of politician should really be taken into account is for some egregious act such as attempted murder, assault, drunk driving, or something else that would would surely question the the integrity and ability of a political candidate. If it is a facebook picture where there is drinking or little inappropriate touching or something it should not matter just as long as the person is capable of helping to run a country. People need to stop being so sensitive about little things and truly examine the character of candidate through a lens of how they can benefit the country and not through the eyes of the opposition and the political ploys that they use to distract from the real issues

Facebook is a fairly new technology and has grown at an incredible rate as a tool technological tool used by society. Relating it to politicians, I agree with Jennifer that politicians are put on a pedestal and we have to realize that they are people too. When George W. Bush was going up for election a scandal came out that he had received a DUI many years back. This didn't stop him from taking the presidency. Of course it created a scandal but he was still elected. I think that since Facebook and the internet are still developing technologies society is blowing things out of proportion. We are discovering what Facebook can do; it can be used for networking or revealing "dirty little secrets." With the potential of the internet, society must set new standards of what a scandal actually is. Politicians are people too. Should they be restricted from expressing themselves online because they need to preserve their squeaky-clean images? We all know politicians aren't perfect and we need to perceive them as humans. They make mistakes that we make and they like to live, but they are representing us in government. Perhaps in the future we won't be so uptight about what a scandal really is.

Sometimes I wonder whether the internet will act as a device for "natural selection" among politicians. Those whom work diligently to keep their private lives off the web will be successful against those that don't. Does that photo somehow display the young mans inability to govern? I don't think so. For some it shows an immorality that they wouldn't approve of. Such is the conundrum of being a public figure. Often when we put ourselves in the hands of others, standards that most have likely ignored or broken will be held to us. And yet some of these so called outrages end politician's careers and others don't, why is that? Does the outrage necessitate a scandalous picture? If that's all that's needed than count me out of public service, because its only a matter of time before someone gets ahold of pictures of me when I was younger. Or Maybe these scandals are a result of poor timing, and poor media handling. 4 years passing isn't much time to call your actions as young and stupid. And how many of us have taken pictures with our hands grasping a womans breast? I'm sure in the future there will be more cases like this, but what I'm not unsure of is if they'll include more innocuous actions.

In more Web 2.0 BC politics news, there's a <a href="http://twitter.com/fakegordie"Fake Gordie Twitter account for Gordon Campbell. (Hat-tip to Miss604)

From the "D'oh" department, BC Liberal candidates are opening mouths & inserting feet. The following is from the Globe and Mail::

" The B.C. Liberal bid for a third term, which has proceeded smoothly through the first third of the current election campaign, ran into serious trouble yesterday with news that the Solicitor-General has had to give up his drivers' licence due to speeding tickets, and the release of an e-mail in which candidate Marc Dalton basically equates homosexuality to pornography."

"In the 1996 e-mail, Mr. Dalton said he does not support a gay lifestyle. 'I believe homosexuality is a moral issue,' he writes.

In an interview, he [Dalton] said his views have changed over the years and that, in any event, he would not impose his views on the public should he be elected an MLA.

"Mr. van Dongen, who has a lengthy history of speeding, learned on Thursday that he had lost his licence for four months after collecting two tickets for excessive speeding in a short period of time.

'I'm not proud of my record,' he said.

The Liberal candidate for Abbotsford South now must finish the election campaign relying on public transit or having campaign workers chauffeur him around."

I like the idea of campaigning from a bus. Hat tip to Marcel (above) for the G&M article. Also thanks for correcting me on my BC politics errors.

People would much rather read about how a politician had a racy photo surface than the new tariff policy. The web only makes it easier to find and distribute this information. It also probably makes the whole process less painful though. Things will be big news fast but will die off as soon as the next scandal surfaces and the ever-dwindling attention spans of Americans want something new.
I remember being in 5th grade when president clinton was caught cheating. To me, this wasn't really a big deal because it was on tv all the time and I knew it happened a lot in the real world. When I asked my teacher why everyone was making a big deal out of something common, she replied that he is the president and he is not supposed to do that kind of thing. I guess same goes for me- I am an RA and it would be much different if I got in trouble compared to a resident. However, to me there are so many scandals going on constantly (thanks to the media and the web) that I am really not surprised at each new one and I don't even really care. Do we hold politicians to a higher level? I would hope so. Through trying to do this are we making the problem worse and becoming apathetic? I would argue that I definitely am.

Politician’s private lives are held to an unfair/fair microscope that gets looked into and judge by the public. Yes, they are public figures and they do represent the public, but how much of their private lives should matter to the public? They are just as human as you and I and just as susceptible to making mistake in their lives.
Facebook is a social networking site that is mostly for those to share their lives with their friends. If you choose to make it public then you should be held accountable for what you post, but if it is private it is between you and your friends. I do note that, no matter who you are criminal acts aren’t covered when I say private profile. But as far as personal everyday life goes they should be able to lead a life as we all do.
I do think as a society we have to let it go a bit. Watergate put this country in a spin that created the thought that we must watch everything politicians do. Granted some of it needs to be, but I think it goes a little far at times. As a public figure you are expected to be on your best behavior, but you should not be scrutinized for the common man mistakes.

Ray created a web 2.0 response to this whole thing because of all the media spin and misinformation around his resignation.

His statement on the home page is…unbelievably tame, and he writes about the whole incident in a blog, which is actually pretty interesting.

Give it a read: http://www.raysunderwearaffair.com.

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