They're also having a national election in Canada, in case you haven't noticed, and in honor of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's dropping of the writ (that's what they call the dissolution of Parliament and the calling of new elections, I'm told), we're dropping our own writ, adding two new charts to track how the Canadian candidates are doing online. For starters, we've got a Facebook chart tracking the daily count of how many "friends" each of the candidates are garnering, and a Technorati chart showing how often their names are being mentioned on blogs.

What do these numbers mean? The web is both a great barometer of interest in politics as well as an organizing and communications tool. Friending someone on Facebook or writing about them on a blog are both indications of organic interest in a candidate. In the case of the Facebook, the interest being expressed is clearly positive, and a smart campaign understands the value of connecting with such people in the online communities where they already congregate. In the case of blogs, a mention can be more of a mixed blessing, though it's safe to infer that a higher number of mentions means greater intensity of interest.

Why should we care what people are saying and doing online, if many people aren't participating on the web (or can't afford to)? Well, the web is not a perfect mirror of society at large, and there is still a serious digital divide that needs to be addressed. (See our challenge to the US candidates for example.) But there's a lot of evidence that online activity correlates well to off-line political activism. People who go online to discuss politics, or create and share political information, are much more likely to also be the people who disproportionately get involved in politics by writing letters to the editor, writing checks to causes, organizing house parties, and volunteering on campaigns. By tracking some of the traces they leave online, we get a fresh and revealing picture of where this influential group is going.

One additional note, if you're interested in digging in further on how the web is affecting the Canadian election. Check out NetPrimeminister.ca, a new site that is aggregating blog content, YouTube videos, Twitter comments and Flickr photos documenting the race. The Hook, a new political blog from TheTyee.ca, is also a great place to follow the ins and outs of the race.