The First "E-election" is Underway in Canada

President-elect Obama's successful election campaign used every web tool available. His YouTube videos were watched for an estimated 14.5 million hours and he had almost 3.2 million Facebook friends. However, America is not the only country where the Internet has become central to the election process.

While a provincial election in British Columbia, Canada, is six months away, the campaign has already started in cyberspace.

One of the parties, the New Democrats, has unveiled its new website - www.bcndp.ca - with nifty tools to get people involved in campaigning with this party.

New Democratic strategist Jeff Fox, said in a recent interview, "The critical part is to develop multiple strategies to reach voters. The notion of reaching people by radio, print, TV, on the phone and knocking on doors are long gone."

There are new voters out there that gather information in very different ways and the new media are critical in reaching these voters.

People can now  very quickly access websites to make donations, sign petitions, send e-mails: all in real time.

For those with more time, sites provide in-depth references to party policies, how to reach members of the legislature, read news stories and hot blogs.

Bloggers can post their own stories and comments or receive the latest website dispatches via cell phones.

People could shot a clip of a political speech in a remote community on their cell phone and posy bit to the party site in minutes.

Interactivity is the key.

The governing party, the BC Liberals, launched their website www.bcliberals.com with an Open Platform feature. This allows people to have a voice in influencing party policies. The Liberals claim this is the first forum of its kind in Canada.

Open Platform users can select specific policy issues and make suggestions directly. This is an e-extension of traditional online forums and the old-fashioned town hall meetings of previous campaigns.

The incumbent government's Liberal leader launched his Twitter account to send messages to people on their cell phones.

Both party leaders have Facebook sites to connect with the social networking game.

One of the challenges the parties face is staying ahead of the web curve.

Things change so quickly, if they are not careful, they will be seen as out of touch with the savvy young voters they wish to attract,

Parties now have to offer the latest ways for people to interact with the candidates and each other, people don't to just receive information, they want to participate in a meaningful way.

Welcome to the world of Web 2.0 !

Photo by Ginny. Creative Commons License Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic