[Anonymous Contributor]

I discovered that the original NO BC HST page had shut down on Friday evening. If you are not familiar with the Facebook group, it was BC’s largest and one of the two biggest Canadian activists groups (the other being CAPP). Later on that evening a new group by the same name was started. A lot of work went into the original, which was started by Bill Tieleman. The new group was created to keep people informed on the issue and to be a rallying point for those who wanted to know why the first one was gone. The original is back up now but during the span of 2 days there was a quite an uproar in the digital world.

The first site that alerted the blogosphere to the disappearance of ‘NO BC HST’ was HSTinCanada.com (I’ve added a link to the article at the bottom). Within hours of going offline people began to rally across the internet. You can see evidence on Bill Tieleman’s blog and the hundreds of personal Facebook pages of members and the new groups that spawned. I think the biggest thing here is that, regardless of hick-ups (that was a huge one), the internet has given people a way to communicate quickly and efficiently. News is becoming almost instantaneous and people are quick to right errors and solve problems together. I couldn’t tell you how many people wrote the folks at Facebook, but I will say that without their quick actions, it is likely the group would not have been reinstated.

In some cases these groups drop offline and have to build back up from scratch. I think this is a wonderful show of how democracy can work. For example, living in a democratic nation allows, technically, for everyone to have a say. Since this is the case, both the positive and negative views can be expressed. On the internet this takes the form of trolling. But you can see, Wikipedia being a perfect example, that people, without any incentive for personal gain, are quick to champion positive endeavors. Again, with Wikipedia anyone can edit and trolling, errors, or profanities are removed almost as quickly as they are produced. People are not benefiting in any materialistic way by making corrections, they are simply taking part in something bigger than themselves. It is the same case with the Facebook groups like NO BC HST or Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament, news sites and blogs.

While cynics write them off as being pointless, this incident with the HST page shows that people do in fact care and are willing to stand up for their believes. They are not simply joining a group and going on their way. These groups give people a chance to meet with others and speak up. So often today people really don’t feel that their opinions count or that one person can make a difference, the internet gives these people a forum to meet like minded individuals, an opportunity to see that they are not alone. And it is this sense of community that brings these people closer and allows them to work together in times of crisis. It is like a hybrid of what democracy can actually achieve.

Below are some links to websites that were quick to spread the word on the group.

www.hstincanada.com
http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=105998706732&ref=ts
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/1/31/11416/0764

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