Data and Targeting in Canadian Politics: Are Provincial Parties Taking Advantage of the Latest Political Technology?
Date
2017-12-18
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Recent decades have seen dramatic advances in information and communication technology, allowing political campaigns to refine data and target voters in unprecedented ways. However, many of the most sophisticated targeting techniques are absent from Canadian politics. This thesis asks: to what extent are Canadian provincial political parties using advanced database assisted targeting and analytics, and what factors may be affecting their ability to do so? To answer this question, this thesis first determines the most advanced capabilities of data and targeting in political campaigns by analysing the most sophisticated example seen to date: the 2012 Obama for America Presidential Campaign. This thesis then interviews personnel from four different Canadian provincial political parties: The BC Liberal Party, the Alberta New Democratic Party, the Alberta Progressive Conservative Party, and the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. These case study interviews explore the extent of Canadian parties’ database and targeting operations, as well as what factors may be stopping them from using data driven targeting to its fullest extent. These interviews show that the two major factors inhibiting advanced data driven targeting campaigns in Canada are a lack of sufficient data due to privacy law, and the small scale of single member plurality election campaigns. The most significant finding is that Canadian privacy law prohibits companies from selling private data necessary to create the databases that fuel the most advanced targeting techniques. Therefore, as long as Canadian privacy law remains this way, it is unlikely that Canadian politics will see the most advanced database assisted targeting and analytics in campaigns.
Description
Keywords
Citation
Carlile, C. (2017). Data and Targeting in Canadian Politics: Are Provincial Parties Taking Advantage of the Latest Political Technology? (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.