Some quick thoughts on the communications involved in campaigning for municipal office, from Vicky Smallman, candidate for Ottawa City Council.

In my ward, (a mushrooming exurb dominated by builders, road construction and big box stores) the roadside signs planted by candidates have to compete with realtor’s signs, mobile billboards, and giant hoardings directing drivers to new developments. Oh – and we seem to have twelve candidates for council in our area, each with their own sign in two or three sizes.

Anyway, here’s the candidate on signage and other vehicles:

“…They are also one of the few parts of “the message” that a campaign team can control.

  • Web sites only reach the people that seek them out (as you, our dear reader can attest to);
  • media coverage is solely at the discretion of the publishers and editors who also must (hopefully) carefully weigh the coverage amount;
  • public debates are hosted and moderated by (sometimes self) interested third parties — in our case, the ward’s community associations;
  • even pamphlets are just as likely to end up in a recycling bin unread as they are to end up in a voter’s hand.

Signs though, they’re right there in your face: Announcing who’s in the race. They can’t be avoided. They also cost a tonne of money.”

An afterthought about the effort being put out by the Ottawa Citizen to cover the municipal election: the paper itself is doing a great job, but its effort at blogging really suffers from poor design. It’s hard to distinguish between posts, the headlines for the posts are undescriptive, and the text and kerning is quite tight.