Paul Martin, weblogger

Paul Martin, the Liberal MP who seems to have a lock on becoming the next Prime Minister of Canada has started his own weblog at the behest of the twentysomethings on his staff. Thanks to Colby Cosh for mentioning this.

Colby's done most of the hard spade work. Yet...I would like to take a moment to look at one statement in Mr. Martin's explanation about why he is starting the weblog. He mentions that during a recent trip to Windsor he visited his old home and the graves of his parents. "It wasn't newsworthy but it was an immense pleasure for me," he says.

People usually start weblogs because they don't have a group of reporters who follow them around looking for news, as Mr. Martin does. If it was important to Mr. Martin to get a sense of his roots and where he came from--as he had "immense pleasure" in seeing things that remind him of his past--why not ask a single reporter to tag along and then share what he is thinking? If these are genuine emotions, why not share them and flesh out for Canadians what makes the true Paul Martin tick?

"I'm a feeling man...but what I am feeling is not 'newsworthy', thank you." Paul Martin...as an empty canvas that you may paint as you choose.

I can hear an objection. "But, these are private moments that he shouldn't have to share." Quite so. Well then, why start a weblog to talk about such things, even in passing? Mr. Martin will find that people who read weblogs have a naturally curiousity to dissect everything that is posted by the weblogger in an attempt to read what is in his or her soul. In some ways they are like an online diary, whether they are intended to be or not. His privacy, if he intends to do a good weblog, may shrink somewhat.

In this passing observation, Mr. Martin opens a door and closes it quickly. Something seems a little false here. Is the Martin team trying to find a way to get hipster bloggers to read the text of his stump speech online, in "weblog" form?