Stephen Harper has become the latest politician to take to YouTube in an attempt to reach younger voters.

About 1,800 written and video submissions were sent in, with Google choosing a selection to put to the prime minister.

The event was, for all intents and purposes, a traditional broadcast interview.

Even the set-up looked like a traditional broadcast interview.

There was little new here, except that the interview was broadcast on the web via YouTube, rather than on a TV network.

The Vancouver Sun called the “experiment uninspiring.”

The carefully staged managed ‘experiment’ was no experiment in e-democracy. Rather it was a politician using a new media delivery system, YouTube, to bypass legacy media and attempt to reach voters.

By Wednesday morning, the 40 minute interview had racked up just under 30,000 views.