Well it seems that in just under 3 years the federal political parties in Canada have started to pay a lot more attention to their online campaigns. In 2006 the Conservative Party of Canada pretty much copied the site from the Republican National Committee.
This election has seen a lot more online activity (mudslinging) from most of the parties. Instead of putting everything on the national party sites there have been a horde of new sites created to showcase one issue or another. Here is a list of some to check out.
- sCandalpedia – Features a history of Conservative government scandals since 2006 with lots of focus on Harper. An impressive list! (Liberal Party of Canada)
- Promise Breakers – A list of broken promises of Harper in B.C. (Liberal Party of Canada)
- Anything But Conservative – Danny Williams is not happy with the Harper government over some broken promises. I think the site is interesting in that it is the provincial conservative party picking on its federal counterpart.
- You Will Be Tricked – Tax, there is no other word that gets conservatives more worked up then this. This site takes direct aim at the Liberal carbon tax plan. (Conservative Party of Canada)
- Not A Leader – This one goes right after Dion’s leadership. Kind of reminds me of when the Liberals did the same thing to Stockwell Day. Site was made famous by the pooping puffin. (Conservative Party of Canada)
- Green Train – Well maybe the Greens are just too nice to get into the mud. The site tracks May’s train tour of Canada. (Green Party of Canada)
- Democratic Debates – Probably one of the most successful sites so far this campaign – trying to get Green Party Leader into the debates. Seems to have done its job. (Green Party of Canada)
A second thing I have noticed is that the NDP seems to be buying up Google Adwords for the election. On this sites’ political posts I have seen several NDP ads pop up. Would be interesting to find out their return on this advertising expense.
I think it is too bad that the parties have spent so much effort in cutting each other down. It would be nice to see a more adult debate on platform issues. For example the Green Tax Shift – two parties have this in their platform – they obviously think that this will work and be good for Canada. The Conservatives don’t share the same opinion but I have yet to see a detailed analysis on why they are so against it, “You will pay more!” does not cut it!
If you have found some other election related sites that are worth checking out then leave a comment with a link.