Huffington Post Canada has launched a new content vertical adopting the US created Impact. The AOL-owned publication is  building off the multi-market expansion and social content creation already done this year.

“We had a number of Canadians already visiting HuffPost Impact in the US and we realized there was an opportunity there,” Rashida Jeeva, general manager, HuffPost Canada, tells MiC of what spurred the launch of the page which seeks to bring about social change.

Of the 67,000 average monthly unique Canuck readers checking out the U.S. site, 63% were in the 18-to-49 age group, earning an average household income of more than $75,000, she adds. “This is very encouraging because it seems that they’re younger. We thought it would skew higher, but it seems they are socially conscious, even at [a younger] age.”

The site is meant to encourage positive change on a wide variety of topics (for example: homelessness, immigration, and aboriginal news), and provides advertising platform opportunities much like other HuffPost lifestyle verticals, such as sponsored blogs or slideshows, says Jeeva, noting there is no launch sponsor at this time.

“If you look at any of the other publications in Canada, there aren’t many that can establish something that’s not just hard news and crime or sensational news,” explains Jeeva on the site’s point of differentiation. “It’s really difficult for people to click on those types of stories and engage directly in those arenas. But the way that the HuffPost does it, the type of platform we offer, it’s a very engaging [way] where people join in on the conversation.”

For instance, launch week will run with an “If I could #Change Canada” feature curating stories, videos and tweets of how readers would make the country a better place. “That’s the type of content that gets people engaged. It’s a way to touch on a topic in a creative way,” she says. “For us, HuffPost gauges its engagement through how much we drive through social media.”

Content on the site will come from a slew of Huffington Post Canada and US bloggers and editors, as well as non-profit partner organizations such as Free the Children, Lake Ontario Waterkeeper and Habitat for Humanity Canada.