Liberal Websites Still A Step Behind--Including New Site Attacking Layton

Martin has his own official website of course, Paul Martin Times. It has webcast, a poll (singular--the same poll has been up for months), and the requisite blog. The blog isn't really the innovation it's been made to seem, however. The best thing about blogs, after all, is that they are candid, passionate, individual--a reflection of opinions and personal voice. Martin's blog entries are none of these things--rather, they are mini-speeches, carefully crafted and full of formal, political language. And as a result they are, as Martin biographer John Grey has said, "boring as hell." This should be no surprise since it's unlikely a political candidate would risk posting information related to their platform without carefully managing the information to convey the "right" impression to voters, but it's still disappointing. Couldn't they have made the entries SEEM more personal--such as by using less formal language? That wouldn't have prevented the PM from delivering entries crafted to get votes, but it would have been less obvious and possibly more effective.

The official Jack Layton campaign site which is supposed to be at jacklayton.ca doesn't seem to exist except as a reroute to jacklayton.com which is itself not much more than an intro to ndp.ca. This is frustrating and should be remedied. The more notable NDP site is Fly Our Flag.ca, which allows Canadians to vote on which flag they think the Prime Minister would fly on the Peace Tower, since he didn't fly a Canadian flag on his own ships. The site has a sense of humour which allows it to criticize Martin without being completely nasty, and is also crafted to be more democratic and interactive since it is readers who voted on which flag Martin would fly. It also includes the all-important links that allow people to sign up for updates from the NDP or donate, a crucial tool in building support.

The Liberal party's response, online at least, has been weak. There's a new site called Say Anything Jack which accuses Layton of making up facts, and lists a few concrete examples. But it's unimpressive, for several reasons.

First, it is not a stand alone URL but just part of the Liberal party site. This is likely why it does not include any information about how to donate to the Liberal party or sign up for updates, and why it's so small. At the moment, it includes just a few facts in point form and two links, and therefore seems incomplete--almost like an afterthought. To be fair, it's a new site, but with the amount of money behind Martin you'd think the site would be more comprehensive even to start. A better way to convince readers might be to post new "fabrications" by Layton every day, or at least regularly, and to include more links to information on Layton's policies. Also, without the links on how to get updates on the Liberals, it is probably less likely to get more people involved in the Liberal party if they visit that site first.

The site also comes across as more malicious because it has no sense of humour, but rather just makes charges about Layton (eg "Layton may have set a new land-speed record for the most number of fabrications per minute"). Of course, negative campaigns do work, as much as people say they dislike them, so that may not be a detriment to convincing voters.

Still, the site doesn't allow any reader participation, since there is no vote involved and no way for readers to participate. Participation is one of the qualities that has made the internet and many internet tools so popular. The lack of reader input of any kind so far probably also gives readers less of a sense of "ownership" or involvement in the site, and reinforces the sense that they are being told what to think.

Most importantly, it's possible that by devoting even that much web space to Layton, the Liberals are acknowledging that he is a serious opponent--which could actually bolster Layton (which was also mentioned in the Star article on the new Liberal site, and is the spin the NDP is emphasizing).

And Layton's flag site may not be the only internet competition that Martin has to worry about. Paul Martin's campaign team has also lost the initial battle to a non-NDP site called PaulMartinTime.ca The site spoofs Martin's official site and offers information and criticism of his policies to the general Canadian public. The Martin camp's response so far has been to try to intimidate the site with a SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation). However, the site fought back by issuing a press release on the threats, which led to a media frenzy--driving up the site's hits while also forcing Martin to back down. That means the final score on that web battle is Martin opponents 1, Martin 0, especially since the site remains up and running and contains all the details of the Martin camp's attempts to shut it down.

Of course, these web battles still seem like Little League stuff when compared to what's been happening in other countries. So far we haven't seen anything like the online fan clubs and text message swarming that helped a perpetual also-ran become President of South Korea; nor have we seen the sort of mass mobilizations of petitions, emails and phone calls made possible by sites like MoveOn.org in the U.S., or anything to match the funds and support raised by the Dean campaign.

It's not that it couldn't happen here. With Canada's broadband penetration among the highest in the world, and with internet use actually higher in Canada than in the U.S. when population is considered, Canada remains ripe for internet innovation.

But it remains to be seen whether any Canadian candidate will take full advantage of that fact before the next federal election.

Note: PoliticsOnline Paul Martin Times jacklayton.com ndp.ca Fly Our Flag.ca Say Anything Jack Star article spin PaulMartinTime.ca all the details MoveOn.org