Obama goes iPhone for election… our candidates don’t.

With some much happening in politics these days, not only in the USA where the race is on for the White House, but in Canada where our politicians are in heavy canvasing mode by door knocking to us Canadians. Seriously, I’ve had representatives from the NDP, Liberal and PC actually knock on my door at night and hand me a pamphlet.

The Unites States is a different story where you’ll find Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama use technology to build his brand by releasing a free Apple App called “Obama ’08”.

This app works on the iPhone and iPod Touch and targets users, or “potential voters”, with the “tools you need to make an impact and stay in the know”. It has regular updates of  latest news on Obama’s views on issues, photos and videos from the campaign. The app also has a “donate” button to support his campaign.

Now in Canada, it’s like we are stuck in the 1980’s. Nothing new, fresh or targeted to find that new audience of voters… just the same TV, print, door knocking and radio advertising. I’ve seen one online campaign that bashed PM Stephen Haper and his views and how he has failed as a Prime Minister in Canada. This was not promoting the election, but a new book in the market.

Our Canadian candidates should learn something from this little piece of technology called the “Obama ’08” app and make a change in their style. We finally got the iPhone in Canada and not sure how many people would actually download the app, but it certainly would get us talking and bring a new level of excitement to our government. In addition, another possibility is to work with RIM on a BlackBerry application of some sorts… after all, RIM is a homegrown Canadian company that produces leading edge products…. something could have been made for the BOLD or, if released on time,  the Pearl 8220 Flip (targets young voters).  A video game could have been made for the N95 possibly called “Race to Parliament”.

The technology is here…and one can dream.