Ottawa Sun
Published: Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Hi-tech hustings lacking: Social media offers tremendous opportunity, but candidates miss boat

With the race for mayor coasting into a mid-campaign lull and ward council races a hit-and-miss, depending on the ward and number of candidates running, this week it’s a grab-bag of observations from the hustings.

Let’s start with Elections Ottawa; the good folks who run the machinery and logistics to ensure voting on Oct. 25 goes off without a hitch. Thank goodness they still have 32 days to improve if their online “Are YOU on the Voters’ List” application, because, it isn’t working so well.

I tried my name and then the names of three colleagues — in various combinations, as they suggest — to ensure that they were each exactly as they should appear on the voters list, to no avail. And the four of us have lived at our respective residences for eight, 17, 20 and 32 years. A quick follow-up phone call to a nice lady at the elections office did find my name on the list, but her remarks were not inspiring.

“Yes, this seems to be happening from time to time”, she responded when asked if voters were having trouble with this online tool. She then confided that she could not find her own name online.

Still, with the Elections Ottawa crew, their website graphic of a group of diverse young people smiling is, one assumes, aimed at getting out the youth vote, which is laudable. But wouldn’t a better graphic be one of a multi-generational nature since voter turnout is not just a youth problem, but a broader challenge of general apathy?

Next up, social media. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and a candidate’s website are great vehicles and platforms from which to broadcast campaign announcements and tweet niceties about “great weather to canvas today” or “humbled by 19 new lawn sign locations,” but seriously, where is the conversation? Or interaction with voters?

As my leftie friend and social media expert Ian Capstick has suggested, candidates need to better interact with voters and each other. We have yet to see a candidate book and promote an hour, or weekly timeslot, where they answer Tweets or wall posts in real time. Is it risky? Yes. But would it distinguish them from their opponents? Undoubtedly!

Thirdly, with just over a month to go, challengers to incumbents need to step up their efforts to differentiate themselves, not only from sitting councillors, but from other new candidates in their wards as well.

While there are some good incumbents running for re-election and a few wards where their challengers simply don’t know the issues beyond the amount of their annual property tax bill, vote splits in other wards such as Bay, College, Rideau-Goulbourn, Knoxdale-Merivale, Capital, Rideau-Rockcliffe and Kanata South could see victors (depending on the ward) elected with vote total pluralities ranging from the high-teens to low-30s range. Unfortunately, such results will hamper the efforts of these winners to build post-election consensus in their wards.

Finally, voters must ask candidates how they will play nice in the big sandbox at City Hall. Council politics can be petty, pious and personal all at once, and the ability of your local councillor to avoid this folly, keep things in perspective and perform effectively — 100% of the time — is of critical importance.