Tweeting for dummies

Political correctness, now there’s an oxymoron for the 21st century twitterverse.

Seeking to connect with the electorate, or perhaps as a means of appearing to be in touch, politicians have taken to social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook and personal blogs, spreading the messages that traditional media does not. Therein lies both the benefit and the problem for people like Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk, who learned the value of a good editor and the cost of a bad idea last week.

He tweeted a photo of a mudslide near the Fairmont Hot Springs resort and made an inappropriate joke about affordable rooms. He said he was somewhere else on vacation at the time and claimed not to have known the severity of the natural disasters in B.C. that had already claimed two lives at the time. Even if we take him at his word, he still deserves criticism for publishing something without first making inquiries to obtain the necessary context. The tweet was deleted once Lukaszuk discovered just how poorly he had chosen his words.

Lukaszuk is not the first politician to get himself in a tight spot over a 140-character faux pas — federal New Democrat Pat Martin and Senator Patrick Brazeau already blazed this calamitous trail — but such a lapse in judgment does not augur well for a man who, in the absence of the premier, is supposed to speak on behalf of the citizens of Alberta.