Justin Trudeau releases platform via live Facebook video, with some hitches

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeauembraced technology Monday, livestreamingthe releaseof hisfull electionplatform in Waterloo, Ont., via a newFacebookvideo feature.

The stream, which featured live iPhone video of his announcement at Wilfrid Laurier University, encouraged users to ask Trudeau questions, some of which he answered at the release.

• Liberal platform promises help for students, infrastructure spending and tax changes

The Liberals are calling it a "Canadian first"saying they arethe first political campaign in the world to releasean election platform using live video onFacebook.

MegSinclair,a spokeswoman forFacebookCanada, would not confirm the event was a first, but she said she hasn't seen another politician release a campaign platform viaFacebooklive.

The video streaming feature, calledLive forFacebook Mentions, waslaunched by the social media giantin August. Sinclairsaid any Facebook user with a verified account can stream live video using an iPhone. It has been used by Canadian celebrities like Michael Bubl and Jann Arden.

Monday'sstream began withTrudeauin a back hallway, speaking into the iPhonecamera.

"Hey Facebook, it's Justin Trudeau. Big day today.We are launching our full platform in a couple of minutes," he said.

"I'm looking forward to taking all sorts of questions from the audience and from all of you, so make sure you post your questions in the comments below and I'll try to get to as many of them as I can over the next hour."

He repeated the comments in French, then without pausing walked down a corridor into a room of Liberal supporters and hopped up on stage. The camera followed behind him and was placed in a tripod directly in front of the stage.

Trudeauannounced his platform, touting new help for post-secondary students, raising infrastructure spending and closing tax loopholes, before turningto a mix of questions submitted by the livestream audience onFacebookand from the crowd.

Questions ranged from those about anti-terror billC-51to the now infamous "mon amour" encounter withBloc Qubcois leader Gilles Duceppeduring Friday's second French-language debate.

Liberals misspell Laurier'sname

There were some hitches, though. During the first few minutes of Trudeau's speech, audio levels on the Facebook streamwere so high that it was difficult to understand him.

The Facebookpost that housed the stream also misspelled the university's name Wilfrid Laurieras Wilfred Laurier. Laurier,Canada's prime minister at the turn of the 20th century,was also a Liberal.

SeveralFacebookusers pointedoutthe gaffe onthe Liberals'post and it hassince been corrected. The partydid spell Laurier's name correctly in the French version.

Though Trudeaumay be the first politician to livestream his platform, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper was actually the first of the Canadian leaders to use the video stream during a Q&A at the Facebook Canadaoffices in September.

He posted a brief, 24-second live video, thanking users for posting questions during the Q&A.

NDP Leader TomMulcair took part in a similar Q&A session at Facebook's Torontoofficein August, though it did not include video.

All the leaders have been tapping into the popularity of video on Facebook,posting new videos to their Facebook pages almost daily.

Facebook Canada claims there are fourbillion video views per day on the platform worldwide, withmore than 50 per centof Canadians on Facebook watching a video every day.