At /r/CanadaPolitics, we love it when users submit self-posts to spur discussion. This page is for those who have an idea they want to talk about, but aren't sure what the best way is to ask other users about it.

What does a good discussion post look like?

A good discussion post asks a clear question that invites comment from users with many different points of view. The question could be about a policy issue, a politician or political party, or something more open-ended. Because discussion posts should be inviting to a broad audience, please avoid asking leading or one-sided questions.

A discussion post could also ask more than one question on a general topic. It is not recommended, however, to ask many questions on many different topics, which makes it hard for people to reply to the post. So please keep discussion questions focused.

Some examples of good discussion questions can be found here, here, and here.

Do I need to write anything in the body text?

Not necessarily. Good questions can be written without using anything in the body text. Here's an example.

Good discussion posts that do contain something in the body use the body text to add context or clarify the question. If you would like to write persuasive content, such as an argument about why you think the latest government policy is a good or bad idea, please write your argument in a comment replying to your own self-post rather than in the body of the post, while keeping your question as open-ended as possible. We ban advocacy-based link submissions to avoid turning /r/CanadaPolitics into a platform for campaigning, so we must hold self-posts to the same standard.

Why else might I want to use a self-post?

If you want to talk about an article that doesn't directly relate to Canadian politics but don't want to wait till Free Speech Fridays to post it, you could use the article as the basis for a discussion thread, as described above. This post is an effective use if a non-Canadian article for discussion of Canadian topics.

Other self-posts not based on a discussion question are welcome in /r/CanadaPolitics, but are outside of the scope of this wiki page, which is geared towards helping you craft good discussion questions. You might want to ask for information related to Canadian politics, share information, or make a megathread on an election day. As long as you're trying to capture the spirit of the subreddit, give it a shot!