Welcome to the new age of the political revolution my friends. In a time where the attention span of eligible voters is at an all-time low, you have to make every moment count. So if you’re having a quick discussion on Calgary’s upcoming civic election on October 18th (check out calgarypolitics.com and calgarydemocracy.ca for all the details) with one of your coworkers in the lunch room, or in the elevator with that cute girl you’ve been trying to sound smart around, there’s now an easy way to show the masses the policy of at least one mayoral candidate.

Naheed Nenshi has taken his political tactics to the web, dominating the #yycvote Twitter stream, nearing 1000 more Facebook friends than his nearest competitor, and he’s the only candidate to release an iPhone app.

Nenshi’s app provides a quick summary of pretty much anything Naheed Nenshi on the web, be it: www.nenshi.ca (the candidates website); his Facebook page wall; or any tweets by Nenshi, or those mentioning @nenshi. The app also provides direct links to policy, videos, a biography, links to donate to the campaign, photos, links and more.

Some people may dismiss this concept as not being worth the time and money spent to develop it. Much is said about how the target audience of social media, iPhone app users, etc are targeting users who don’t vote. What this application does is provides a means for those voters to actually get engaged in the civic election. You don’t even need to know much about the candidate to deliver someone a 2 minute run down of the candidate because it’s all right there for you on your iPhone.

Think about that for a moment. You can say to someone: “Have you heard of Naheed Nenshi?” and without saying another word you can show that person Nenshi’s entire platform. What this creates is a literal army of volunteers for the Nenshi campaign. Kids can download the app, show it to their parents, people can discuss specific policy at the water cooler, you can show someone a video while waiting for the bus, or you could show off your hip iPhone to the cute girl in the elevator without having to stumble over too many words all the while looking informed!

Man, what a world we live in…