The National Capital FreeNet Municipal Elections Project, 1994

By: Richard Taylor (aa333), NCF Board Member

The municipal elections of November 1994 provided an excellent opportunity
to demonstrate the value of the FreeNet for community debate, access to
candidates, and distribution of information. The project was very
successful in meeting these needs, and also gave NCF a lot of favourable
publicity in the community. As with all NCF projects, the Municipal
Elections Project succeeded thanks to the dedicated efforts of volunteers:

Bob Antonietti, aa400		Julie Chahal, ab161
Stan Currie, aa975		Matthew Darwin, aa673
Brett Delmage, aa693		Lisa Donnelly, am412
Bernhard R. Dueck, az394	Miranda Gray, ak717
Basil Halhed, aa591		Andrea Kujala, aq880
Howard Levitin, ag084		Dave Loan, aa112
Mike Lynch, aa139		Brian Monkman, af088
Gordon Pearson, au167		Al Seaman, aa331
Eric Snyder, ae924		Frances Tanner, aa816
Richard Taylor, aa333		Stephen Toy, aa102
Jonathan Wouk, av767		Luigi Zardo, bd747

The project began in the spring with a call for volunteers. Some were
veterans of the 1993 Federal Election Project, and we all had learned from
that experience. We knew that the hardest part would be to get a
significant number of candidates signed on as NCF members. Fortunately,
the election date was known well in advance, and a number of councillors
were already active NCF information providers.

Another complication of this election was the changes to the organization
of the Regional and Municipal Governments. These changes were still being
debated well into the spring, and it was a bit uncertain if they would be
approved. When they were approved, there were many changes to ward
boundaries, and what elections each voter could vote in. On top of the
municipal complications, were the large number of school boards which were
electing trustees at the same time. It was a daunting task to come up with
a menu structure for the NCF that would be clear and informative to voters.

Then we had to negotiate with the various municipal government offices,
asking for their assistance in publicizing our "All Candidates' MEeting".
An information package for candidates was produced, but many of the
returning offices were reluctant to distribute it as candidates
registered. This put the load back onto the volunteers. Another big THANK
YOU to those who went through the lists of registered candidates and
contacted them by phone or in person.

In order to give all candidates a fair chance to become members, we did
not open the newsgroup debate areas until the beginning of October. This
also allowed us to hold a live "kick-off" meeting at the Ottawa Public
Library. NCF President David Sutherland opened the debate by posting the
first question in the debate newsgroup, and we were fortunate in having
some candidates present to immediately answer the question live and
on-line. However, the problems we had that evening with extremely slow
system access were typical of the problems during the entire campaign. We
were successful in creating a lot of interest, but were not as successful
in meeting the resulting demand on the system.

Once the debates were open, they became a useful and important forum for
community discussion. Many times during the campaign period, the NCF
debates were quoted or referenced by local newspapers, radio stations and
television stations as the place to find out the issues and to see where
the candidates stood on the issues. More than half of the Ottawa municipal
candidates became involved, and significant numbers participated in many
of the other municipalities and school board elections. Some candidates
were VERY enthusiastic and created extensive menus containing their platforms.

It should also be noted that some of the governments also made extensive
use of the NCF to distribute official information about the election
process. They were very cooperative about providing cross-links to the NCF
Municipal Elections Project, thus further enriching the information
services. It should be noted that the City of Gloucester became an
information provider during this period, and the City of Nepean
experimented with distributing elections results electronically.

The Municipal Elections Project served about 1000 people per week, with
the largest numbers using the City of Ottawa election area. As evidence of
the success of this project, when the campaign for the Ottawa-Vanier
federal by-election began, we did not contact the candidates - they
contacted us first! We look forward to another election project this year
for the Ontario Provincial Election. 

The debates that were held during the Municipal Elections Project have
been saved and are still available on-line. "go munelect"