Stephen Harper to interact with humans via machines

Stephen Harper, continuing his practice of bringing up the rear of the hip train driven by Barack Obama, has announced that he will be holding an interactive YouTube discussion on March 16. Yesterday, the PM “shared his reaction” to his Throne Speech, then asked viewers to submit and vote on questions that he will tackle on Tuesday. The idea is to engage Canada’s youth, which was also the motivation behind the PM’s other new-media forays: he’s been on Facebook since 2007, Twitter since 2008 and has had a YouTube channel since 2006.

Yet the PM’s on-line legacy has been distinctly one-sided. His YouTube channel features a series of carefully chosen, self-aggrandizing clips that start with a laughably vainglorious intro montage—all comments and ratings disabled, natch. Somehow, this hasn’t broken through with the young ’uns. His solution appears to be: go interactive. The strategy worked for Obama (who permits user ratings and comments on his videos), who did something similar after the State of the Union in January.

Will it work for the PM? Stay tuned.

• Stephen Harper to reach out to Canadians on YouTube [Globe and Mail]
• Harper brings Throne Speech reaction to YouTube [Globe and Mail]