When the Paul Martin and the Liberal Party lost the 2006 election to Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party, the Liberals declared that it was time to renew. Renewal commissions were set up. One was the Internet Task Force. Jason Cherniak sat on that commission.

I don't know what the task force recommended, but I might suggest some simple things, like keeping Liberal Party sites up to date and eliminating broken links from the home page.

Look at that -- I've already dramatically improved an important Liberal Party website, and I didn't spend a dime of Liberal Party money doing it.

Here's what I'm talking about. Unfortunately, it's more than just some broken links. The problems are far more serious.

In the context of the Liberal Party debacle in the recent Quebec by-elections, I wondered what the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal Party might be saying. I decided to visit the site to find out. I didn't expect to find what I found.

You can reach the site at http://www.plcq.ca/default_e.aspx. First bit of advice, don't use Firefox. The site layout is broken under Firefox. That's something for the Liberals to put on the to-do list.

Now look at the home page. First "Top Story" is "Conservative Budget Fails Canadians".

The budget? That was back in March. That was six months ago.

Glance over to the right. There is a box called Press Review. In it are scrolling headlines. From March. Apparently Stephane Dion unveiled a plan to fight crime, and nothing since.

On the Opinions page, people are discussing Justin Trudeau's selection as the nominee for Papineau. That was back in May.

Some information is more current. Under Upcoming Events, we learn that Stephane Dion will be in the riding of Compton-Stanstead on September 23. That's in four days. The announcement document was created in August. Someone put it up on the site, but did nothing else.

Some links are completely broken. There is a big button to take you to the Young Liberals of Canada (Quebec). The button takes you to www.jeunes.liberaux.qc.ca, but the site is down. Actually not just down, but in fact the domain is not known to the name servers. There is no IP address associated with that domain. The domain is still registered, but there is no site associated with it. And yet the site for the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal Party continues to link to that site.

The Young Liberals of Canada site also attempts to link the YLC(Q) using the broken domain.

Other links are broken as well. Link rot has set in the Women's Commission page of the LPC(Q) website. There is a call-out to encourage you to download the Action Plan for 2006-2007. There is no document at that URL, and a "Page Not Found" error is served up. The same thing happens when you follow the big button to the "Proposed New Constitution" for the Liberal Party. I'm certain there are other examples of link rot.

The problems continue. Follow the link from the LPC(Q) site to the LPC(Q) site for Outremont. Now I did not expect a press release on the loss, but I did expect some reasonably recent material from the by-election. The most recent press release from the Outremont site is dated February 10, 2007. Checking out the Liberal Party website for Outremont, and you could be forgiven for not realizing there was ever a by-election.

Local issues in Outremont? Coming soon:

This page will soon be updated. On this page, you will find information your region's local issues.

Still waiting...oh never mind, the by-election is finished. I guess it's up to the NDP's Thomas Mulcair to worry about local issues now.

The Quebec website is an absolute mess. It hasn't been maintained in months, including such critical subdomains such as the Outremont site. The site layout is broken under Firefox. Shockingly an important auxiliary site, the one for the Young Liberals in Quebec, seems to have lapsed altogether. Links to important documents go nowhere.

Amusingly, there are problems on the volunteer page. The first is inconsistent text. Volunteers are encouraged to fill in the form below. There is no form below.

But the other problem isn't a problem with the website as such, but it might explain a lot:

Please note that we are also actively looking for volunteers to help us maintain our website. If you have experience and are interested in helping us promote our e-campaign, please write directly to Fabrice Rivault at frivault@lpcq.ca.

I guess they've been looking for six months and got nowhere. What shocks me is that with the by-elections announced, the Liberal Party in Quebec didn't just cough up the money for an outside company to come in and bring the site up to date, at least until the by-election was done.

It's like no one cared. No, more serious than that. Like the site was abandoned and left to fall apart.

And how did the the Young Liberals of Canada (Quebec) website manage to disappear altogether?

Remember all that business of how Michael Ignatieff''s supporters were supposed to be sabotaging the Liberal effort in the Outremont by-election in order to hasten Stephane Dion's departure as the leader of the Liberal Party? Well, it looks like the website for the Quebec wing of the Liberal Party was abandoned in February, only a few weeks after Stephane Dion was elected as leader, beating previously favoured candidate Michael Ignatieff. Michael Ignatieff was, of course, supported by the largest single contignent of Quebec delegates:

Over 750 supporters from all regions of Quebec will gather this evening at the Palais des Congrès to show their support for Michael Ignatieff a few days before the Liberal Leadership Convention. This will be the largest event since the start of the campaign.

“I am very happy to be among so many Liberals who, like me, believe that together we can renew the Liberal Party of Canada and present a winning alternative to Stephen Harper and Gilles Duceppe in the next election,” said Michael Ignatieff. “I look forward to seeing all these supporters once again at the Palais des Congrès next week.”

“Tonight’s message is very clear: Quebec Liberals are behind Michael Ignatieff. We have found in him a leader who is not afraid to present new ideas, a leader who understands Quebec’s sensibility, a leader who is ready to lead us to victory in the next election,” said the Hon. Denis Coderre, MP for Bourassa and National Campaign co-Chair.

So in December 2006, the leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff favoured by Quebec delegates loses to Stephane Dion, who for years was depicted in Quebec political cartoons as a rat. Nine months later, Stephane Dion's Liberals lose the by-election in Outremont, and it appears that the Liberal Party website for Quebec, including the subsite for Outremont, had ceased receiving any sort of support only weeks after Ignatieff's leadership loss.

Weird.

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