A Winnipeg woman seeking the Tory nomination in the provincial riding of Kirkfield Park has launched her political career on the internet's hottest soapbox: YouTube.

YouTube, a website that allows people to upload and view video clips free of charge, attracts millions of viewers everyday.

While common entries show clips from TV shows and amateur video of everything from tornadoes to beer cannons, 42-year-old Carol Loader is using the site to announce her political intentions.

"Hi, my name is Carol Loader and I'm the candidate for nomination for the Progressive Conservative Party of Manitoba for the Kirkfield Park constituency," begins the first of six video clips Loader has posted on the site in the past week.

The video clips are each roughly a minute or a minute and a half long, and highlight the 42-year-old mother of two outlining her political platform.

Loader, who works for Tuxedo Tory MLA Heather Stefanson, said it was her family that pointed her to YouTube.

"Partly through my daughter, who's 16, and she is on the computer all the time, so that's part of her life," Loader said.

"I'm lucky to have a husband that's technically well versed," she added. "So they both advised me that this was a good site to use."

It's an added bonus that uploading videos to YouTube is free, especially for provincial nomination candidates running on shoestring budgets. But Loader said the real bonus is in reaching out to people her daughter's age.

"YouTube and the internet and MSN [Messenger] and all those things are something that kids use daily," she said.

"Ten years ago nobody had a website. Now we are getting into blogging, that's a popular thing. So YouTube is a new medium on the computer, and I think that any politician should take a look at it, or anybody that's interested in getting a message out, a mass message out."

Shirley Muir, a public relations instructor at Red River College, said she was impressed by Loader's jump into 21st-century promotion.

"Good for her for paying attention to where young people are these days," Muir said.

"Anyone who's trying to reach a younger population has to pay attention to the internet, and she's got the right idea."

As of Monday, Loader's videos have netted nine to 35 "views" from web surfers. Loader said she will have to knock on doors in the Kirkfield Park riding, but she hopes YouTube will be better than any paper pamphlet she hands out.

The Kirkfield Park riding in west Winnipeg is currently without representation, after former Conservative leader Stuart Murray resigned as an MLA on Sept. 7 to take up a post with the St. Boniface Hospital and Research Foundation.

Premier Gary Doer has yet to announce if he'll call a byelection for the riding, or simply call a general election next spring.