Liblogs
Encyclopedia
Liblogs is the name of a group of Canadian bloggers. The Liblogs membership consists of bloggers who generally support the Liberal Party of Canada
. Content from member blogs is aggregated on the main Liblogs website.
Founded in 2005 by blogger and Liberal activist Jason Cherniak, Liblogs now includes more than 250 blogs, and is a registered non-profit corporation.
as a reaction to The Blogging Tories
. Beginning in April 2005 as simply a small list of links included on Liberal blogs, a central website was created to aggregate content from member sites. During the 2006 federal election, as many as ten new members joined each week.
Liblogs was originally authored by Wayne Chu in 2005. In the fall of 2006, it was completely rewritten by Liberal blogger David Graham ahead of that year's federal Liberal leadership convention.
announced that he would be resigning as Liberal leader following the 2006 election. The different leadership campaigns began courting bloggers; Cherniak and Rob Edger were named as official "Stéphane Dion
blog campaign co-chairs". Other Liberal bloggers, such as John Lennard and Dan Arnold did similar work for other leadership campaigns. In July 2006, the Toronto Star
and the Globe and Mail both published articles on the involvement of bloggers in the leadership campaigns.
As the Leadership Convention approached, the Liberal Party chose to invite bloggers and treat them as media. Cherniak took the opportunity to launch new features to Liblogs, including a fully bilingual template, a French name of "Liblogues," a Young Liblogs list for Young Liberals
and a news section.
would be unveiling new ads attacking Stéphane Dion
the following week. Mr. Cherniak called on Libloggers to create YouTube videos in order to respond to the new ads. On April 2, the Conservatives launched a new French ad and unveiled their 17000 square feet (1,579.4 m²) campaign headquarters. On April 3, Mr. Cherniak posted 7 new videos to the Liblogs video page and issued a press release contrasting the expensive Tory headquarters to the grassroots YouTube campaign. This led to a Canadian Press
story that was distributed to media across the country. On April 4, 2007, the video page was included in the front-page story of the Globe and Mail and some Liberal videos were highlighted on page 4. The CP story was printed in daily papers across the country. Some examples include, the Toronto Star
, Le Soleil
and the Daily News (Halifax).
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...
. Content from member blogs is aggregated on the main Liblogs website.
Founded in 2005 by blogger and Liberal activist Jason Cherniak, Liblogs now includes more than 250 blogs, and is a registered non-profit corporation.
History
Liblogs was created around the same time as Progressive BloggersProgressive Bloggers
Progressive Bloggers is the name of an affiliated group of Canadian bloggers who come from the centre, centre-left and left-wing of the political spectrum...
as a reaction to The Blogging Tories
Blogging Tories
Blogging Tories is the name of a group of Canadian bloggers who come from the centre, centre-right, right-wing and libertarian sides of the political spectrum...
. Beginning in April 2005 as simply a small list of links included on Liberal blogs, a central website was created to aggregate content from member sites. During the 2006 federal election, as many as ten new members joined each week.
Liblogs was originally authored by Wayne Chu in 2005. In the fall of 2006, it was completely rewritten by Liberal blogger David Graham ahead of that year's federal Liberal leadership convention.
Corporate identity
In the spring of 2006, Cherniak realized that Liblogs was expanding beyond his initial concept of an unofficial list of Liberal bloggers. He began a fund-raising campaign in order to fund an application for non-profit corporate status. By April 2006, Liblogs was a company with the legal name of "Blogger Support Services".2006 Liberal leadership election
Liblogs took off after Paul MartinPaul Martin
Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....
announced that he would be resigning as Liberal leader following the 2006 election. The different leadership campaigns began courting bloggers; Cherniak and Rob Edger were named as official "Stéphane Dion
Stéphane Dion
Stéphane Maurice Dion, PC, MP is a Canadian politician who has been the Member of Parliament for the riding of Saint-Laurent–Cartierville in Montreal since 1996. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and the Leader of the Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons from 2006 to 2008...
blog campaign co-chairs". Other Liberal bloggers, such as John Lennard and Dan Arnold did similar work for other leadership campaigns. In July 2006, the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
and the Globe and Mail both published articles on the involvement of bloggers in the leadership campaigns.
As the Leadership Convention approached, the Liberal Party chose to invite bloggers and treat them as media. Cherniak took the opportunity to launch new features to Liblogs, including a fully bilingual template, a French name of "Liblogues," a Young Liblogs list for Young Liberals
Young Liberals
Young Liberals can mean the following:*Young Liberals , the youth wing of the Liberal Party of Australia* Young Liberals , a liberal party in Austria...
and a news section.
Liblogs News
Liblogs News includes sections on national and regional news and politics. It is edited by journalist Jeff Jedras, who attempts to highlight the best Liberal blog postings at least once a day. The theory is that this will provide an easy way for media or others with limited time to read Liberal blogs and get a feel for what they have to say each day.Liblogs Videos
On March 28, 2007, Liblogs launched a new video page. This is a page where Liberals from across Canada can post YouTube videos for easy access by other Canadians. Days later, media were reporting that the ConservativesConservative Party of Canada
The Conservative Party of Canada , is a political party in Canada which was formed by the merger of the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada in 2003. It is positioned on the right of the Canadian political spectrum...
would be unveiling new ads attacking Stéphane Dion
Stéphane Dion
Stéphane Maurice Dion, PC, MP is a Canadian politician who has been the Member of Parliament for the riding of Saint-Laurent–Cartierville in Montreal since 1996. He was the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and the Leader of the Opposition in the Canadian House of Commons from 2006 to 2008...
the following week. Mr. Cherniak called on Libloggers to create YouTube videos in order to respond to the new ads. On April 2, the Conservatives launched a new French ad and unveiled their 17000 square feet (1,579.4 m²) campaign headquarters. On April 3, Mr. Cherniak posted 7 new videos to the Liblogs video page and issued a press release contrasting the expensive Tory headquarters to the grassroots YouTube campaign. This led to a Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Canadian Press Enterprises Inc. is the entity which "will take over the operations of the Canadian Press" according to a November 26, 2010 article in the Toronto Star...
story that was distributed to media across the country. On April 4, 2007, the video page was included in the front-page story of the Globe and Mail and some Liberal videos were highlighted on page 4. The CP story was printed in daily papers across the country. Some examples include, the Toronto Star
Toronto Star
The Toronto Star is Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its print edition is distributed almost entirely within the province of Ontario...
, Le Soleil
Le Soleil
Le Soleil is a French-language daily newspaper in Quebec City, Quebec. It was founded on December 28, 1896 and is published in compact format since April 2006...
and the Daily News (Halifax).
Split
During the 2008-2009 war in Gaza, Cherniak purged Liblogs of bloggers who expressed criticism of Israel, which also resulted in a number of resignations from Liblogs in protest. As a result, a new aggregator called LiberalsONLINE was created as another choice to Liblogs.See also
- LiberalsONLINE
- Progressive BloggersProgressive BloggersProgressive Bloggers is the name of an affiliated group of Canadian bloggers who come from the centre, centre-left and left-wing of the political spectrum...
- New Democrats Online