With the impending triple election saga this fall (US + Canadian Federal Elections + Halifax Municipal Elections), it appears that many local news outlets in Halifax have determined that US and Canadian federal elections are more worthy of coverage than the more relevant Halifax municipal elections. Therefore, that leaves social media to do as much as we can to cover this important event and scrutinize the candidates so the public can make an informed decision when they head to the polls.

First, allow me to clarify the parameters of this review. This review will not delve into the experience of each candidate. It will not scrutinize them on key issues either. While important, a review as thorough as that is simply beyond my capacity for time. Therefore, I hope readers will accept my attempt at deciphering the suitability of a candidate based solely on: Their use of technology in their campaign.

My reasoning is simple:

1. For a city to grow and prosper, it must have a vision of how it wants its future to look like, and appoint capable people to lead it towards that future,
2. Any talk of working towards or within ‘the future’ ultimately involves some form of interaction with the tools of this future, namely existing and upcoming technologies that are designed to provide leaders with the ability to efficiently and productively collect, analyze, and communicate information.

In other words, if a candidate can not collect, analyze, understand, and communicate information quickly, accurately, and efficiently, then it stands to reason that they may not be able to plan/implement/respond in a timely manner to the continuous pace of changes that are needed for a successful march towards the future. Of course, this is only a problem if a united vision of the future is present and if there is a collective will on council to achieve it within this lifetime.

THE SCORE CARD below will attempt to reflect a candidate’s ability to work with the communication tools of existing mainstream technologies (the internet), which may tell whether or not a candidate has access to the tools that open a world beyond Halifax or their district for their consideration, tools that allow this candidate to draw on this world’s marvel when it’s time to envision the future of Halifax as a city with its place in Canada and the world.

You may disagree with the above criteria. Certainly, an elections candidate can serve his/her immediate district constituents very well without ever having to send a single email. “What’s that Bob? Need snow plows to clear your cul-de-sac twice a day? I’ll call the person responsible and see what can be done about that right away.”

However, I contend that a candidate that can get the street plowed AND use the internet is infinitely more productive, and more informed. But that’s just me.

The big question is: can a candidate’s awareness of technology (the internet, productivity and communications tools, etc.) be a good indicator of their capacity for visioning a future for Halifax? Does this mean this candidate is completely unfit for council duties? Is it more acceptable for a candidate to be less apt with technology, vision, and the future if these things are not a priority to their target voter? Where is the line drawn between individual district priorities and the priorities of the city as a whole? These are the questions that keep me up at night.

I will leave this determination to your individual and collective priorities for the city and your understanding of the qualifications you require of your elected leader to achieve these priorities.

So then, let’s proceed to the rankings!

Measurement Criteria:

To offer a fair comparison, we will mainly analyze a candidate’s use of the internet to communicate in their campaign. If a candidate is unable or unwilling to use the most basic form of today’s communication technologies (a website), then I am willing to safely assume that this candidate does not have the knowledge of the tools of today’s productive leaders and visionaries. But, again, that’s just me.

Candidates will get 1 point on their use of each of the following online communication tools in their campaign. This does not mean that the candidate has to know how to program or create any of the following. It would suffice if they were merely aware of their existence/importance and have directed the appropriate resources towards addressing them.

- Website Presence
- Website professionally built?
- Mobile version of website? (For text message campaigns)

- Website contains:
- Bio
- Platform
- Clear description of represented district boundaries
- Contact Info
- Form to join an email list or newsletter

- Press Kit:
- Downloadable/Printable High-Res Candidate Photo
- Downloadable/Printable High-Res Campaign Logo
- Downloadable/Printable Bio
- Downloadable/Printable Platform
- Notable Candidate Quotes
- Dated Press Releases
- Log of Candidate mentions in the media
- Voting Information
- Volunteer information
- Donations information
- Support information
- Online Support signup form
- Online Volunteer signup form
- Online Donations capability (Paypal, etc.)
- Useful links to related external information
- Video clips (1 point for each video up to a max of 5)

- Use of Social Media tools
- Presence on Social networks (Facebook, etc.)
- Presence on YouTube or other Vlog (Video Blog) sites
- Frequently updated Blog
- Provide link-back tags/banners/widgets
- Use of RSS (Really Simple Syndication)

With the limited time at hand, I am only able to rate candidate websites that I am able to easily find. For those who do not have a readily identifiable web presence, I have assumed they don’t have a website altogether and are therefore marked as ‘0’ in the score card. If you know that a candidate marked with a ‘0’ actually does have a website, please send the web address and I will revise their score accordingly.

Notes:

1. The information in the score card is accurate as of Friday September 19.
2. Please allow for human errors.
3. If a candidate has updated their website to include any of the above elements after Friday, let me know and I will update their score.
4. If you wish to apply your own criteria to rate the candidates, please feel free to use this score card format. You can download the Excel file by clicking here.

Here are some excerpts from the score card. Click on image to enlarge. The complete score card is available as a PDF file Here.

Bedford Candidate Online Campaign Analysis

Halifax Mayoral Online Campaign Scores

Downtown Candidate Online Campaign Analysis