CAPP group heads to 'tipping point'

I've been everywhere today to borrow from a song by Stomping Tom Connors, from coast to coast to coast in this vast and magnificent land, reflecting on the display of unity being displayed among the members of the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliaament (CAPP) group on Facebook. When I last looked, the membership had passed 192,000 but it grows by the minute. On January 5, when I first wrote about it the membership was 26,000.

Quite frankly, no matter the end practical result of the efforts of the members of the group founded by Christopher White, a graduate student at the University of Alberta, to force Stephen Harper, the prime minister, to reverse his decision on proroguing Parliament until March 3, the proverbial geni is out of the bottle.

The power of the Internet to bring people from all parts of this country together in common cause on an issue is now a reality in Canadian life. At the risk of using too many metaphors, Chris White and his group are a game changer, (I taught too many English literature courses.)

To understand a little  better what's happening out there, I reviewed the statistics on my blog, Michael J  Morris reports, and while they are anecdotal, they reveal that Canadians from large and small communities, and from all regions are interested in the prorogation issue.

Visitors to my blog since January 5 when I started tracking the CAPP story have come from 58 regions in 21 countries but 91 per cent are from Canada, and from 371 different cities, over 90 percent in Canada. In the same time period, 83 percent of site visitors came from Facebook.

According to my stats compiled by web-stat.com, the top 10 regions in order are Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Alberta, California, Nova Scotia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. Yes, California!

The top 10 cities are Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Sudbury, Montreal, Victoria, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Hamilton and London - reasonably close reflection of Canada's largest population centres. Interestingly, Calgary is not in the top ten.

Back to Stomping Tom and I've been everywhere for a moment. I was most interested in the reuslts from smaller communities so here are some randomly selected communities where people are interested in the prorogation issue and have visited my blog: Yellowknife, Nanaimo, Trail, Vernon, Victoria, Kelowna, Prince George, Medicine Hat, Lethbridge, Okotoks, Red Deer, Spruce Grove, Regina, Saskatoon, Meadow Lake, Selkirk, White River, Omemee, Barrie, Timmins, Minden, Flesherton, Whitby, Kitchener, Kingston, Quebec City, Pincourt, Gatineau, Repentigny, Fredericton, Moncton, Miramichi, Sydney, Halifax, Dartmouth, Charlottetown, St. John's and Burin. Just a sampler. They also came from about another 300 Canadian communities.

Five of the top 10 posts on my blog are related to the prorogation issue.

Of course, all the above is strictly anecdotal in nature but it sure shows the interest when Canadians from coast to coast to coast will take the time to visit one small web site, not associated with any major media group in the country.

And these Canadians are communicating with each other, on the CAPP facebook group, sharing ideas and information one with the other, 24/7, in one huge national talking place. It is amazing to behold.

Malcolm Gladwell tells us that the "tipping point"  happens when momentum for change becomes unstoppable.

If CAPP continues its momentum, can the tipping point be far away?

Email me at mj.morris@live.ca