People used to joke about how the provincial Conservatives under Danny Williams were a one man band.
Joke no more.
To coincide with the coronation this weekend, the party former known as the provincial Progressive Conservatives have done a makeover on themselves to match the rather dramatic Stacy and Clinton job Kathy Dunderdale herself went through while she was out of the public eye for about a month or so.
Gone is the web address that include any reference to the PC Party.
Now it is “dunderdale2011”.
The logo you see in the upper right hand corner – where eyes go first on an English language webpage – is the graphic that goes with that. The number 2011 is vertical with the word Dunderdale right next to it.
Basically they are running with Kathy as the drawing card, just like before now they ran a Big Giant Head of Danny everywhere.
That’s an interesting choice given that Kathy isn’t Danny and it is still way too early to tell if she actually has the stuff to carry the party through the election.
The Dunderdale party website has a few new features as well. There’s a “donate” button and a “get involved” button as well as a “blog” and the promise of more social media features to come. Those will be fun to keep an eye on especially as the way the Dunderdale party actually operates is the exact opposite of how a party would operate that relies on social media and “get involved” approaches. That’s not to say there aren’t elements of the party who are active with Twitter and Facebook, it’s just that the political parties in this province generally don’t function as they would need to in order to rely on those methods to the maximum advantage.
And if you look at the closed circle that is the Dunderdale party – how do you get to be a member, again? – you have a gang that are the fundamental opposite of the sort of open, member-driven party that runs on social media and connecting with voters.
Interesting choices.
It will be more interesting to see how works out and how the other parties present themselves in the run up to the fall general election.
- srbp -