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This essay explores the significance of the 2010 Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear. Our analysis and discussion is grounded in findings from 40 interviews conducted at the rally on October 30, 2010, and in our close analyses of news coverage published between September 2010 and February 2011, online discussions from Comedy Central fan forums, the Rally to Restore Sanity Facebook site, and Twitter. We argue for the importance of understanding “prepoliticization” as a key phase of contemporary politics, particularly within a mediated public sphere such as this one. The Rally offers unique insight into how the convergence of entertainment and politics gives rise to new modes of civic participation, particularly for citizens who do not see themselves as “political.”

W ith the 2011 election firmly behind us, there is good reason to review the social media practices and practitioners that garnered media attention during what became an historic election. In the wake of the federal election-what Twitter users inventively called #elxn41-it is useful to preface this discussion with a brief overview of the results. As The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti observed in her post-election coverage on CBC Radio, Canada is "experiencing a seismic shift in federal politics," evinced in the decisive reconfiguration of the contemporary political landscape. For our purposes here, a post-election snapshot of this landscape should prepare the way for the discussion at hand:• Stephen Harper wins a majority government (with 39.62% of the popular vote). • The NDP takes more than 100 seats-an unprecedented 58 seats in Québec-and secures the title of official opposition for the very first time. • Michael Ignatieff takes the Liberals to a crushing defeat and resigns.• The Bloc Québécois wins a combined four seats; Gilles Duceppe announces that he, too, is stepping down as party leader. • Elizabeth May becomes the first Green Party member to be elected to the House of Commons. • A record number of women are elected to public office (76 women in total). • Voter turnout is 61.4% (or 14.7 million voters), a slight increase from 59.1% in the 2008 election.For all the drama and excitement that federal elections generate in the public sphere, it is becoming increasingly crucial to examine the wide range and variety of social media deployed throughout election cycles. In doing so, we are better equipped to take the temperature of Canadian civic culture, while assessing the significance these online practices have for political life in Canada. In a social media environment awash with passionate youth voting mobs ("The Yes Women"), devoted anti-Harper hipsters ("Enough Harper"), astute Star Wars modders, enraged senior citizens ("Ottawa Raging