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GOVERNMENT: Voters in Greater Edmonton area urged to participate in online forum on election
        (AlbertaIndex, February 25, Monday) --- If you’re a voter in the Greater Edmonton area, you now have access to an online forum to discuss, support and criticize candidates and their parties vying for your vote in the provincial election on March 3.
        Connect2Edmonton.com (C2E) is a virtual public forum that encourages discussion and collaboration on topics of importance to Edmonton’s future.

Voters in Greater Edmonton now have an unprecedented opportunity to compare party platforms and conveniently engage all regional candidates.  And all provincial election candidates in Greater Edmonton now have a no-cost opportunity to communicate their policies and platforms to voters.

C2E’s Alberta Election Forum 2008 will go live from February 19 to March 7, four days after the provincial election to accommodate post-election discussion.

The special forum is divided into six categories --- Alliance, Greens, Liberals, New Democrats, Progressive Conservatives and General Election Discussion --- and moderated by C2E volunteers.

All declared candidates have been encouraged to participate in C2E’s election forum, and several questions from C2E members are already posted in each constituency thread to stimulate issue-focused discussions.

As well, all party leaders have been invited to submit a C2E guest column to explain how their party’s policies will affect Greater Edmonton.

C2E’s first online election forum for all Edmonton candidates in last year’s municipal election generated an outpouring of participation from the public as well as many election candidates.

“C2E members believe elections are an opportunity for our region to intelligently debate new ideas,” says Richard Skermer, C2E’s co-chair. “We believe this provincial election forum will be as successful as C2E’s online forum for last year’s municipal election … which was a first for Alberta and perhaps all of Canada.”

C2E currently has 2,850-plus registered members in 33 countries and 85,500 online postings on hundreds of different discussion threads. The interactive website continues to attract more than 40,000 visitors per month, has a considerable following among local media and community leaders, and increasingly influences Greater Edmonton’s public agenda.

C2E has the promotional support of Edmonton Economic Development Corp, the City of Edmonton, Edmonton Airports, Edmonton Chamber of Commerce, Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT).

C2E is an autonomous, non-political, member-led organization maintained by a cadre of pro-Edmonton volunteers.  Membership is free for everyone.

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