At the end of a parliamentary session in Canada, it’s not just a time of political transition—it’s also a critical moment for digital preservation. With the next election around the corner, there’s heightened interest in ensuring that the vast array of digital content produced by government entities, political parties, and candidates is not lost. This content, which often appears on government websites, is vital in documenting the decisions and actions of the Canadian government.
The Canadian Government Information Digital Preservation Network (CGI DPN) is playing a key role in preserving this digital landscape. As part of its initiative, CGI DPN will be crawling the Government of Canada domain, federal political party websites, and individual candidate sites. These crawls will take place before and after the election, capturing records before any content is removed or altered. In a time when digital content is increasingly transient, these preservation efforts are crucial in maintaining a complete historical record of the political process.
Global Context: The U.S. End-of-Term Archive
The issue of preserving government websites is not unique to Canada. In the U.S., the Internet Archive has long collaborated with others to ensure that the digital records of government websites are preserved at the end of presidential administrations. The End of Term archive, a collaborative effort of the Internet Archive and several other organizations, captures websites from U.S. government agencies, presidential campaigns, and political candidates. This initiative has become especially significant during the current Trump administration in the U.S., where a large number of government websites are being modified or removed, raising alarms about the loss of public records.
Canada is not exempt from these concerns, and efforts like the CGI DPN’s crawling initiative are more important than ever.
The Role of Library and Archives Canada in Digital Preservation
In Canada, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) also plays an essential role in the preservation of government websites. As part of its mandate, LAC is tasked with ensuring that Canadian government publications, including websites, are preserved for future generations. Through its website archiving program, LAC collects and stores snapshots of the Government of Canada’s online presence, ensuring that Canadians have access to the digital records of their government long after websites are updated or removed.
The work undertaken by CGI DPN and LAC contributes to the broader effort of preserving Canadian political and governmental content, ensuring that the country’s digital history remains intact. While LAC also focuses on a broad range of government materials, the specific pre-election crawls led by CGI DPN will capture a unique moment in time.
The Support of Internet Archive Canada
Recognizing the growing importance of these digital preservation efforts, the Internet Archive Canada is lending its support to the initiative. Internet Archive Canada will provide shared storage and data support for the pre-election crawls, contributing at least 500 GB of data storage, in addition to a search site for this content. This will ensure that the content gathered during these crawls is securely stored and made accessible for future use. This collaboration strengthens the overall preservation effort, adding additional resources and expertise to the project.
Looking Ahead: Ensuring a Comprehensive Digital Archive
As digital content continues to play an increasingly important role in the political process, the preservation of government websites is essential for maintaining transparency and historical accuracy. With efforts from CGI DPN, Library and Archives Canada, and the support of Internet Archive Canada to archive the websites of federal institutions, political parties, and candidates, these initiatives help create a comprehensive record that will be available to future generations.
As the 2025 election approaches, these preservation efforts will ensure that key political content remains accessible, even as websites change, evolve, or disappear. Digital archives are becoming an indispensable resource for understanding the decisions and actions of governments, and with these efforts in place, the historical record of Canadian politics will remain intact—preserved for years to come.