Campaigns & Elections: Canadian Digital Edition (adapted from original)
Published: December 2010

Lessons from the Ottawa Mayoral Contest

For most politicos across the nation, Ottawa is the battlefield of federal politics and the seat of our national government with its associated machinery of departments, agencies, board and commissions. However, beneath the veneer of this city best known for Parliament Hill and the Rideau Canal, lies Ontario’s second largest city of 900,000 citizens who cast their ballots like all other municipalities in the province on October 25^th for mayor, council and school board candidates.

And yes, similar to other elections across Ontario – not to mention the recently completed mid-terms south of the 49^th parallel – the tide of change grew to tsunami-esque proportions in Canada’s usually comfy capital. The incoming city council which takes office on December 1^st includes a new mayor and 10 new councilors (6 of whom knocked off incumbents while the other 4 filled vacated seats). In fact, these 11 faces on a council of 24 represent a seismic shift in local politics not seen in over 30 years in Ottawa.

The message from voters was crystal clear: after four tumultuous years with hi-tech CEO-turned-Mayor, Larry O’Brien at the helm in which he presided over a council of municipal veterans who fought amongst themselves more than the characters on Survivor, voters wanted a more measured and mature performance from a much younger (on average) council contingent over the next four years.

While many council races were fascinating including two wards which went down to the last poll count and saw incumbents lose by 88 and 181 votes respectively, the race for the Mayor’s chair understandably garnered the most attention. And it is from this race that key lessons can be drawn for future reference.

Lesson #1: Be yourself, not who your handlers want you to be.  
Mayor-elect Jim Watson, a former Mayor (1997-2000) of pre-amalgamated Ottawa and seven-year mid-level Cabinet member in the McGuinty government, mainained consistent political branding since the day he filed his papers back in February an it perfectly reflected culture and temperament of Ottawa voters: cautious, competent and confident. This branding was also authentic. 

Lesson #2: Voters have a hard time voting for candidates they do not know or have never met.
Despite all the claims of the impact of social media and new technologies to identify, convince and deliver voters to the polls, the Watson campaign tactics were a salute to old-school, tried-and-true local politics maxims. The most effective and efficient way to earn votes is still door-by-door, event-by-event, and voter-by-voter.

Lesson #3: Know your voters and what messages will – and will not – resonate with them. 
For his part, Larry While incumbent (and now outgoing Mayor) Larry O’Brien lambasted Watson as a “professional politician” at every turn, it was futile. The always affable and articulate Watson turned his two decades of uninterrupted public service into a virtue. Moreover, at a more fundamental level, Ottawa is a city of bureaucrats, journalists, accountants, engineers and consultants (aka: a city of bilingual professionals) that interacts with professional politicians on a daily basis. 

Lesson #4: If the election is about you, nine times out of ten, you’re going to lose.  
O'Brien's defeat (he received 24% of the vote compared to Watson’s 49%) was not a big surprise given his tumultuous time in office that included a trial on flimsy and obscure Criminal Code charges (of which he was rightfully acquitted after chewing through over $600,000 of his own money in legal fees and expenses) stemming from the 2006 election campaign and not achieving his zero-means-zero, four-year tax freeze promise that swept him into the Mayor’s chair over then-Mayor Bob Chiarelli in November of 2006. 

It was this failure on taxes that the Watson campaign repeatedly hammered home as the “ballot question” to voters for nine straight months. In every public appearance and media hit for the five months from the date he registered on February 1^st until the day Larry O’Brien declared he would seek re-election on June 30^th, Jim Watson stuck to this message. In fact, in his news release welcoming O’Brien to the race, Watson stated: "This election will be a referendum on his performance as mayor over the last four years."

Despite their best efforts to position significant accomplishments of Larry O’Brien’s term – including a fully-funded and ambitious transit plan, groundbreaking and commencement of construction on a new convention centre, a P3 to rebuild and revitalize the 40-acre Lansdowne Park, and provincial approval and recognition of the Ottawa river sewage cleanup plan – as Act 1 of a two-act play which would include a bold new vision for smart growth in the downtown core and the suburbs, Team O’Brien could never change the channel on the ballot question. 

Similar to other Mayoral contests across the province, the Ottawa Mayoral race attracted its share of candidates: 20 in total. However, only Jim Watson and Larry O’Brien were in contention to win. 

Lesson #5: Social media is more than a broadcast mechanism; it is an engagement and conversation tool. 
Capital Ward councillor Clive Doucet’s result of 15% reflected the core strength of progressives and left-of-centre voters who supported Doucet’s vision and passion for new urbanism. To his credit, his was the only campaign that actually used social media, most notably his Twitter stream, to engage voters in a conversation. In fact, some argue that this activity combined with his steady presence (usually without notes) in several Mayoral debates resulted in his impressive final vote numbers given that he was at single digits a mere three weeks earlier. 

In future campaigns we will see (or in future articles in this publication) how smart campaigns can integrate their social media followers on Twitter, Facebook, etc to ID this vote and pull them out on Election Day.

Lesson #6: Single-issue or alleged fringe candidates can do significant damage if not called out as such early-on.
The other notable candidate was last-day entry and former regional Chairman Andy Haydon who ran a single-issue campaign in favour of a bus transitway tunnel and system extension over the LRT and tunnel option that was approved during O’Brien’s term in office and also supported by his main challenger, Jim Watson. Mr. Haydon received 7% of the vote that no doubt ate into the same fiscally conservative base in which Larry O’Brien was counting on support. 

While the above-noted dynamics all played a role in the Ottawa campaign, the single most important factor was organization, organization and yes, organization. 

Lesson #7: As the saying goes, if you fail to plan then you plan to fail. There is no substitute for a strategic and adaptive campaign battle plan.
The Watson campaign ran a three-staged campaign plan over nine months: listening in the spring, recruiting and scripting in the summer and executing and closing – signs, simultaneous regional canvasses, on-line channels, paid-media in both official languages, tour strategy, key community sub-campaigns, and the list goes on – from late-August until E-Day. And with due respect to all other campaigns, none of them came even close to Team Watson in terms of volunteers, money and most importantly, the discipline of consistent execution. 

This plan allowed Jim Watson to frame media coverage and public debate in the key seven week period from Labour Day until October 25^th and sail to victory, virtually unscathed and unchallenged.   And not surprisingly, in the weeks that have elapsed since his victory last month, Jim Watson has predictably carried on his discipline of cautious but steady execution through his transition process and official swearing-in to his office.

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Walter Robinson’s political experience spans over 25 years of active campaigns and political involvement including a stint as Larry O'Brien's chief of staff from December 2006 to July 2007, as the Conservative candidate in Ottawa-Orleans in the 2004 federal election and six years as the Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation from 1997 to 2003. His writings can be found at www.walterrobinson.ca.

Professionally, he is a Principal with Tactix Government Relations and Public Affairs (www.tactix.ca), a full-service firm based in Ottawa.