Jennifer Smith

I got a nice mention in Thursday's Champion in an article about online campaigning:

Election candidates taking to cyber world
Christina Commisso, CANADIAN CHAMPION STAFF


As Ward 8 candidate Zeeshan Hamid thanks his campaign contributors, Ward 2 candidate Jennifer Smith discusses the Town’s wind turbine project while Ward 6 candidate Mike Cluett rallies the CFL to consider moving the Hamilton Tiger Cats to Milton.


One need not look further than Twitter, a social networking website, for a glimpse into this year’s council candidates’ campaigning strategies.


A new wave of council hopefuls are taking to the cyber world, using Facebook, Twitter, personal blogs and web forums to gauge voters’ interests, discuss Milton hot-topics and spread the word as to why they deserve a seat around the council table.


Their message to Milton’s council candidates and incumbents: If you’re not online, you should be.

Hear, hear.

If you are reading this, you know how important an online presence is to my campaign. What you may not know is that my netroots go back considerably further than that. I wrote my first computer program on bubble cards in grade 10. I was hooked up to the internet back when Usenet and text browsers were state of the art. I created my first website in December of 1995 - the same year that eBay debuted - and I still know how to use an href tag.

I've been blogging on subjects ranging from local and federal politics to foreign policy to Canadian film and television since 2007. So when I registered my candidacy, the first thing I did was set up this website.

The article notes that about half of the currently registered candidates have a website. While that is true, not all websites are created equal. Some are nothing but a front page with an email address. Others haven't been updated in months.

That's just not good enough.

The best campaign websites (and I like to count my own in that category) don't just display information about the candidate. They actively engage voters in a dialogue on the issues by encouraging reader comments and integrating social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter.

None of this requires any particularly advanced computer skills. Not these days. Anyone who can open a web browser can set up a blog-style website and a Facebook account. And if they can't, they can get their grandkids to show them. It requires nothing more that the effort, and a willingness to expose one's thoughts and opinions to public scrutiny and debate.

What is true for online campaigning should be equally true after the election. You have a right to know what your councillor is doing on your behalf, and what issues are being decided on before those decisions are finalized. You shouldn't have to physically attend every town council meeting to find these things out. And you shouldn't have to wait for an election year for your councillor to contact you - whether by phone, email, Facebook, Twitter, or a knock on your door.

With the new ward system shaking things up this year, we are going to be seeing a number of new faces around the council chamber. Many of them are going to be younger and more tech-savvy than their predecessors, and many - including myself - are committed to making this sort of open, interactive communication an everyday part of how you relate to your municipal representatives.

It's a brand new day. Welcome to the 21st century.