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    Sunday, February 10


    You would think that every candidate of the three major parties would have a website. In fact you would also think the candidates of the minor parties would have websites - heck my pets have websites. I guess for the minor parties just getting candidates is considered a job well-done. By my count 67 Progressive Conservatives have functioning and happy websites - and I'm not counting the couple who just redirect to their candidate profile on the PC party website. The Liberals have a disappointing 30 or so, you would think Dave would be counseling them better. As for the NDP, well every last candidate site points to a uniform (although pretty) template of the NDP website. Strangely only 45 candidates have those, when it likely would take way less effort than writing this blog post to take the NDP template and insert your name where it says "Lefty McSocialist" and your constituency where it says "Redmonton".

    Still, the question remains, who has the best candidate website? Who will come in second, third, fourth and fifth? Well, let's start the countdown along with a couple of honourable mentions:

    Honourable mention #1: office@albertaliberal.com wins as the e-mail address of the most candidates - around 10 Liberals have it as their e-mail... seriously, I can appreciate feeling overwhelmed about getting a web page, but an e-mail? Go to Gmail right now and signup as taftismyhero@gmail.com - it takes two seconds. You're welcome.

    Honourable mention #2: On the topic of e-mail addresses rather than website, I did want to point out two e-mail addresses that caught my eye - first, PC candidate in Edmonton-Ellerslie Naresh Bhardwaj's e-mail address is nareshbhardwaj59@hotmail.com - which begs the question are there 58 other Naresh Bhardwaj's out there? It is a way more common name than I thought. However, the true honourable mention for e-mail addresses belongs to Wayne Cao, PC candidate for Calgary-Fort (and an all-around genuine guy). His e-mail is caoboys@shaw.ca, which was the only e-mail address that actually caused me to laugh out loud.

    Honourable mention #3: The NDP sites are relatively nice. Just they are so obviously a template that I can't say that they deserve to win. So yay NDP on having a bigger web presence than the Liberals. But you're not going to win my awards. Speaking of which...

    #5 - Carole Oliver - www.caroleoliver.ca: Carole Oliver's is one of the best campaign websites in my mind - it looks clean and professional, and gets the job done. It could have offered a bit more information on how and where to vote, as well as how one could help her - donate seemed to be the only prominent way to contribute to her campaign.

    #4 - Greg Weadick - www.gregweadick.ca: This was actually the toughest to pick, as it was a close one with Carole (see above) and Laura (see below) as well as Wayne Cao, Jennifer Diakiw and David Dorward. I knew I didn't want all PC's because I needed some balance and besides, Carole and Laura's sites are good. Greg has great quotes, an active blog, loads of relevant and local material and an RSS feed. Way to go Greg!

    #3 - Laura Shutiak - www.laurashutiak.com: Her YouTube video is funny, and she breaks free from the two things (outside of policy) that bothered me most about Liberal candidates' websites - first the stock template that obviously was offered candidates the much like the NDP. It also didn't use the word "Alp" to describe themselves. What is an Alp? Other than the obvious mountain range in Europe. And yes, I know Alp stands for Alberta Liberal Party. Nice, clear, red and white.

    #2 - Dr. Raj Sherman - www.ElectRaj.ca: Yep, I'm pretty biased, but I didn't design it personally (and as Colleen and Spence will tell you, I didn't give them much feedback) so I figure it is in the running. There is video, there are words that were obviously not written by the central campaign, and some neat personal stuff that makes you like the guy more. Plus I am told Raj is drop-dead sexy (from all sides of the political fence). Yay Raj!

    And the winner of the best candidate's website is....

    #1 - Dave Hancock - www.davehancock.ca: There is just so much to see and read on Dave's site that I don't know where to start. A few great YouTube videos, a blog written by the candidate himself, neat news stories, and most importantly, the guts of what the site is meant for - enabling people to vote and giving them a reason to vote Dave. Bonus points for offering his website in other languages (so did a couple of other candidates I saw, like Theresa Woo-Paw.

    For those who want to keep up with these sites and the other candidate websites I found in 16 minutes, right-click and save this html file and import it into your bookmarks.

    Labels: ,

    posted by Duncan @ 4:22 PM  

    5 Comments:

    • At 7:19 AM, Anonymous Web2.0! said…

      Taft's website sucks! But then I guess everything else about him does too. Brian Mason's site is also similarly poor.

      http://stelmach.ca/ is WAY better!

      How hard is it to put together a website? Get a volunteer to do it or pay someone. There is no excuse in this day and age not to have a viable website with content and contact info.

       

    • At 7:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

      I love how Dave's website (http://www.davehancock.ca/) has a welcome message in video format - thats great! Also I love all of the opportunities for people (voters, constituents, volunteers, friends, etc) to contact him or get connected with him - YouTube, Facebook and Flickr - good for him!

      He obviously is a man of the people and cares very much about what Albertans think (enough to listen to them especially). Great qualities for a Politician to have!

       

    • At 8:16 PM, Anonymous Chris LaBossiere said…

      Duncan:

      As one of the forces behind Dave's web presence (one of many), thanks for noticing the hard work. I have to say, Dave has been committed to new media to communicate with every constituent. Him personally taking the time to update his own blog (often well past when most others have gone to bed) is one of the reasons he has my support.

      This guy is a genuine hard worker, but also very intelligent and articulate as you pointed out. 30-second sound bites just don't always work for him...and his blog is a good place for him to get past the bullet points.

      Watch for constant updates, new videos and content.

      Chris LaBossiere

       

    • At 12:12 PM, Blogger Toby said…

      I remember those heady days of joeclark@hotmail.com. Why have you forsaken hotmail, candidates? How will I MSN you?

       

    • At 8:54 AM, Blogger Quynn said…

      It's kinda sad that I'm only getting to go through your blog now for the first time in 3 weeks or I would have picked up on this a lot sooner...

      It's Teresa Woo-Paw, with no 'h'...

      ;-)

       

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