Equal Access, Unequal Success — Major and Minor Canadian Parties On the Net

Abstract

The Internet has been heralded as the most revolutionary technology since the printing press. Within political science, much work centres around the democratizing potential of the Internet. Cyber-optimists argue that the Internet has the capacity to equalize political competition for parties. Other scholars argue that the Internet will not dramatically change the status of minor parties. Politics on the Internet will be `politics as usual'. Empirical support for both theories is mixed. Research has shown that party-centred countries are more likely to become equalized as a result of the Internet than candidate-centred countries. Using data from the 2004 federal election, this article argues that the Internet has not led to an equalization of party competition in Canada. The websites of nine political parties show that despite equal access to the Internet, there is unequal success in cyberspace for Canadian parties.