April 17, 2007
OTTAWA-The Liberal Party of Canada today unveiled its new website as part of an overall strategy to reach out to Canadians online.

“As one of the most ‘wired’ countries on earth, more and more Canadians are looking to the Internet as their primary source of information,” said Liberal Party President Marie-P. Poulin. “It’s not only smart, but responsible politics to communicate with Canadians in this way.”

As a result, the new website – www.liberal.ca – features interactive content and extensive use of online video.

It is the only political website in Canada to be internationally W3C standards-compliant and fully accessible by the visually impaired. Its smaller page file size will allow faster download times for users in rural communities.

Other features of the website include:
Personal video messages from Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion
Weekly audio podcasts of the program Radio Free Liberal and speeches by the Leader
Tools to improve communications between Canadians and their Members of Parliament
Ways for Canadians to voice their opinions in local media outlets
RSS feeds (a web content distribution system) tailored to meet the specific interests of local communities across Canada.

The website is the latest addition to the Party’s larger online communications strategy. Following the practice of some Liberal leadership candidates last year, senior Liberal officials have been engaging the blogging community and mobilizing Canadians on the social networking community Facebook.

In just a few weeks, Mr. Dion has amassed nearly 5,000 “friends” on Facebook, triple the number of any other Canadian politician.

Because of the inherent openness of the Internet, online communications has become a central way for the Liberal Party to communicate with the Canadian people, Ms. Poulin said.

“As Liberals, we believe that more information, not less, makes our democracy stronger. Through the Internet, our Party will be able share the Liberal message with a wider audience than ever before,” she added.