After the Obama Girl, Canada now has its own Harper Girl.

Last week saw the launch on mashline.com of ‘I’ve Got a Crush on Harper,’ a parody video featuring an attractive young woman who pines after the prime minister that was authorized by barelypolitical.com, the U.S. maker of the successful ‘I’ve Got a Crush on Obama’ viral video.

And that’s just one small sign of how federal election campaigns are increasingly being waged, and streamed, on the Internet in addition to TV, radio and print.

With social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo integral to the 24-hour news cycle leading up to election day on Oct. 14, the Canadian media is acutely aware of the need to pick up and report online political buzz and party commercials.

Jamie Purdon, director of newsgathering for the CBC, notes that reporters on planes and buses shadowing the party leaders, for example, are expected to report online or blog continually as they also file traditional TV and radio clips.

After all, it’s the blogosphere where Canadians get ‘alternative’ news reports, video posts and analysis of the election.

What’s more, the media here has to cover national tours for five major political parties, as opposed to the two in the current U.S. election, on a host of new digital platforms. All five political leaders have a Facebook page, and there are websites that track the number of online ‘friends’ each have (Jack Layton leads). The University of British Columbia’s school of journalism has launched netprimeminister.ca to note trends in social media that surround the election.

At the same time, CTV News president Robert Hurst insists campaign twists and turns, while they may start online given the speed of telecommunications, will always circle back to essential coverage on traditional TV, radio and print platforms, where most Canadians get their news.

‘Most Canadians are not news junkies. Most Canadians do not get their news and information from online sources,’ he says.

Hurst says CTV’s main focus is breaking election developments on its main broadcast outlets, which include CTV Newsnet, and then letting that news filter out to its online platforms such as ctv.ca.

‘Our broadcast news outlets are the priority. There is very little original reporting on the web being done by any Canadian outlets,’ he argues.

‘The blogs — that’s not original reporting. Most of that is comment, comment, comment,’ Hurst adds.

So how have Canadian networks tailored their election coverage online as an extension of their traditional platforms?

The ctv.ca site features an ‘election heat map,’ which tracks where the major political leaders are — in the battleground provinces B.C., Ontario and Quebec, mostly. CTV also designed a ‘Pick Your Party’ web game to gauge which political leader most connects with a user’s own political views.

CBCnews.ca created 308 blogs — one for each federal riding — for Canadians to discuss local races, candidates and issues.

The CBC’s Purdon says his network uses the blogosphere to gauge public opinion during the election campaign, but cautions that the Internet mostly represents a vocal minority of Canadians.

Global Television — besides its own news, video and blogs online — features a ‘Decision 2008’ election trivia quiz, a news widget to offer election headlines, and its own interactive map to track the party leaders.

Specialty channels are also getting into the game. MuchMusic and MTV Canada have unleashed raunchy commercials to encourage participation by young voters.

One 15-second MTV Canada commercial portrays young people urinating, followed by the caption: ‘There are other ways to mark your territory.’