The purpose of this article is to explore the paradoxical impacts of social media on democratic and governmental processes in Canada - specifically, a dichotomy of often contradictory tensions between control and communications on the one hand, and collaboration and empowerment on the other. In this regard, Canada is an ideal laboratory, given its high proportion of social media usage on the part of the citizenry. Drawing from the Canadian experience, the paper thus seeks to explore: i) how governments are using social media at present; ii) the political-administrative cleavage that shapes this usage; and iii) the main institutional tensions requiring redress in order to more fully leverage social media for more inclusion and collaboration - as opposed to communications and control.