After Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, federal politicians are multiplying new ways to talk to their constituents, and more and more of them are now getting into podcasting. Some use it to debate public policy, while others stick to more human talk. The New Democrat Alexandre Boulerice has even decided to make it a financing tool, because the good old kitchen assemblies are no longer popular as before.
Like many Canadians, elected officials have also seen themselves cut off from the world during the confinements of the past three years. Political rallies had to be suspended. Opportunities to talk to constituents were limited. The idea for the podcast germinated.
“When the pandemic hit, we could no longer hold town hall meetings. So I turned to podcasting as a way to fill that void,” says Liberal MP Nate Erskine-Smith. He has since produced 100 episodes of his podcast, which reaches an average of 1,000 listeners and sometimes even up to 2,000.
Elected representatives from all the main parties embarked on the adventure, each using originality to find a properly parliamentary title for their programme. Nate Erskine-Smith offers his podcast Uncommons, a pun on the English name of the Commons; curator Garnett Genuis has directed 40 episodes of his, dubbed Resuming Debate ; Bloc member Sébastien Lemire aired three episodes of his podcast in the spring of 2021 The Honorablea title used to designate members of Parliament.
Former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole appears to have been a pioneer of the federal political podcast when it started Blue Skies as early as 2016 (the show took a hiatus while he led his party).
“Podcasting attracts many more people than a popular assembly could muster,” explains Nate Erskine-Smith. The Toronto-area MP, who is considering a run for the leadership of the Ontario Liberal Party, invites former politicians, federal cabinet ministers, political rivals like Mr. O’Toole, and often policy experts to his microphone such as the opioid crisis, Indigenous children’s services or vaccination.
He therefore sees his podcast as a communication tool, for his constituents and all Canadians, but also as a research tool, which he uses to flesh out his own positions in Parliament.
Curators Erin O’Toole and Garnett Genuis — who declined to discuss their podcast — are streaming the same kind of conversations, for free.
episodes for sale
NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice, meanwhile, sees podcasting as a potential new fundraising tool. After freely releasing the first episode of his show Let’s break the tapea casual interview with his former colleague Hélène Laverdière, he requires a donation – however small – to listen to subsequent episodes with his boss, Jagmeet Singh, or his colleague Peter Julian.
The fundraising strategy, however, did not go down well with one of his constituents. “It is absolutely outrageous! replied Pascal Pelletier to the automated email in which Mr. Boulerice solicited funds.
“This communication means that a Member charges a price for his communications, even if he indicates that it is “regardless of the amount” of the contribution, argues Mr. Pelletier in an exchange with The duty. The communications of a deputy must always be free, he chanted. Can you imagine if the deputy [François] Legault, who is also Premier of Quebec, asked us “a little $5 or $10” to listen to his podcasts? »
Alexandre Boulerice denies not being sufficiently available, free of charge, for his constituents. “Whether through media interviews, on our Facebook page, in correspondence with citizens, everyone can know exactly where I am staying and what I think on any subject, every day. “retorted the member for Rosemont, in a telephone interview.
“All MPs fundraise for re-election, and they have different ways of doing it,” he said. Podcasting is simply a new method. »
Adapting to modern financing
The professor of political science at Laval University Eric Montigny gives him reason. “It’s a more sophisticated version of fundraising,” he observes. This is clearly a reaction to the fact that politicians need to get in touch with people and that the old assembly, organized at such and such a time in the basement of the church, is history old,” notes Mr. Montigny, recalling that political parties have also lost public funding of $1.95 per vote, abolished by Stephen Harper’s government.
Alexandre Boulerice’s team claims to have consulted Elections Canada and that the agency told him that there was no problem since his podcast has no commercial value.
When the pandemic hit, we could no longer hold town hall meetings. So I turned to podcasting as a way to fill that void.
Mr. Boulerice, however, seems to stand apart. Nate Erskine-Smith never thought of demanding funds in exchange for his. “Because I see it more as a tool to educate and inform people,” he says of his vision for his role as an MP.
His Liberal colleague Kody Blois, from Nova Scotia, is in the same boat. “Podcasting was a way for me to communicate with my constituents, especially during the pandemic,” he explains of his show. Points of Order, which he therefore wanted to make accessible to as many people as possible. Its episodes are downloaded on average by 200 to 250 listeners.
The adventure of podcasting as a fundraising tool has barely begun, Alexandre Boulerice does not yet know if it will pay off. Depending on the result, some of his colleagues might be tempted to follow in his footsteps and also give up free admission.