July 14, 2002

UPDATE: The coup is over. The link to the Premier's website at http://www.gov.bc.ca/prem/ now works properly. What do you suppose it would take to get them to remove material like the "12 months" article that properly belongs on the BC Liberal Party website? Instead it is getting worse. Just look at the partisan text in the Government of BC Annual Report for 2001.

Government Communications on the Web
Christy Clark's coup d'état?

Visit the top level government webpage at http://www.gov.bc.ca/. Note when you click on the Premier's photo the address in your browser changes to http://www.gov.bc.ca/prem/, prem for Premier's page, even though the image that appears is the Ministry of Education. It used to be the Premier's page but it looks like the Deputy Premier, Christy Clark, has staged a coup d'état.

The top level government website is interesting as it reveals the priorities government communications staff assign to various messages. For example, for the past several weeks, no matter what new story is added to the top page it is inserted after "12 months of action". The 12 months story provides a link to a partisan document that should have been paid for by the BC Liberal Party.

Despite efforts to use the government website to get out the government's version of the news, little gremlins sneak in. For over a week clicking on the Premier's photo, yields not the website for the Premier but a version of the Ministry of Education's website complete with broken links for some of the graphics. It is interesting that this error has persisted for so long without anyone bothering to notice or correct it. I have to admit that I have now spoiled the fun by reporting the error through one of the many feedback forms. However, since this is a weekend, you might still test the site. Then again if the feedback form works like any of the policy feedback forms, no one may ever correct the error.