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Kelowna city council candidate Clayton Kessler shows off his website. (Photo Adrian Nieoczym)
In many ways Saturday’s by-election is a battle of generations. On one side you have candidates like 60-year-old Vern Nielsen and 49-year-old Mary-Ann Graham, whose ages are more in line with what’s typical for a Kelowna city councillor.
On the other side, you have candidates like 19-year-old Kevin Craig and 26-year-old Rocky Mix. Should either of them get elected they would both be significantly younger than the council’s current junior member, Angela Reid, who is 31.
In between are middle-aged candidates like Todd Sanderson, 42, and Clayton Kessler, 41.
Accompanying this generational battle are differences in campaign strategies. Traditional methods, like election signs, door knocking and attending events to press the flesh, are still very much front and centre. But this campaign is also witnessing an upsurge in the use of websites and social media like Twitter and Facebook.
Mix is doing almost all his campaigning through electronic devices. Inspired by how Barack Obama successfully used the web and social networking, Mix has created a YouTube video, is sending out text messages and has a Facebook page with 518 fans. He says it is more efficient than going door to door.
“A lot of questions have been coming via facebook or text messaging,” he said. Those questions often lead to a dialogue between Mix and would-be supporters and that Mix hopes will translate into votes come Saturday.
Nielsen on the other hand, is relying on the tried and true ways of doing things.
“The primary focus of my campaign has been knocking on doors and finding out what people think the issues are and allowing people to put a face to the name and getting to know me a little bit,” he said.
Like most of the 15 candidates, Nielsen has a website and he’s also on Facebook but he is not using it as a campaign tool. And he is most certainly not sending out text messages.
“I’m more likely to appeal to a voter that’s a baby boomer or middle-aged and therefore, for me to start texting out messages to this group would probably be very ineffective,” he said.
And while Nielsen says he wants to represent a wide spectrum of age-groups should he get elected, “history tells us the vast majority of voters are the older people, so I put more of my time in using the traditional methods to communicate with them.”
Graham feels much the same way. She’s on Facebook but doesn’t have a wide online network. She’s investing most of her energy meeting and greeting people at public events like seniors dances and flu clinic lineups.
“I believe face to face is still the number one thing people need for the older generations,” she said. And while she is hopeful more young people will get out and cast a ballot this time around, “it’s still the older people that vote.”
According to an analysis by business consultant, Scott Davies, who runs the Culturactive website, Craig is the most active candidate when it comes to using the web.
Craig’s website is getting more hits than the other candidates and he also has the most Facebook fans (592) and the most Twitter followers (186).
“When you look at the last civic election and 20 per cent voter turn out, it’s clear we have to do a better job of engaging people in the civil process and I see online tools as one of the ways to bridge the gap,” said Craig, who just missed grabbing a council seat in the last election by 39 votes. “As I learned last year, every vote counts and I’m going to leave no stone unturned between now and election day.”
But Craig is not spending the whole campaign just sitting in front of his computer. He is also one of the more active candidates when it comes to putting up signs and going out door knocking.
“You’re more able to communicate in person. For example, on Twitter there’s a 140 character limit on what you can post. You can’t have a very thorough discussion when you’re limited like that,” he said. “Door knocking allows you to build more relationships so the person can say they’ve actually shaken the candidate’s hand and looked the candidate in the eye.”
Sanderson’s campaign strategy meanwhile, is “a bit of a hybrid,” he said.
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7 Responses to “Tried and true or Twitter and techno; By-election candidates use different methods when trolling for votes”
Tags: by-election, Facebook, Kelowna, Twitter
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There is adequate representation for young people on city council with the presence of Councillor Angela Reid. We need someone with lots of community experience not just hope and hype. Kelowna voters have lots of experienced candidates to choose from. Don’t make a foolish mistake!
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That’s right John, young people are stupid and incapable, old people are smart and wise. There’s no such thing as a young person who could possibly contribute anywhere NEAR as much as an older person! Thank you for saving the voters of Kelowna from making a ‘foolish’ mistake with your ‘old person’ wisdom.
LOL!! Talk about the personification of everything that is holding Kelowna back.
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Well said William!… i have had it with all this ridiculous negativity from a couple certain people on here. It is NOT progressive or necessary whatsoever! How are ” young people ” ever going to to learn if you do not teach them and give them a chance?… in a few years all of our councillors with be in walkers and wheel chairs and no one else will have any interest in politics if you dont give them a chance and let them learn!…
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Holding Kelowna back from what, William — big-city status? No doubt Kelowna becoming another Vancouver is your notion of “progress”. Bigger is better, right William? Well, it’s all been done before and so often that when you get right in the middle of them, all big cities are pretty well alike, aren’t they, with their high-rises and hurried residents who are essentially strangers to one another?
Kevin wants us to “move forward together” and to make Kelowna a “world-class” city — another Vancouver. In that sense he is lacking the maturity and wisdom to realize that Kelowna’s uniqueness is something worth preserving rather than something to move away from. And if you, William, think that Kevin Craig is the best candidate in this by-election, you are lacking in wisdom too.
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In response to Cory, young people will learn like they have always learned — by acquiring sufficient knowledge and experience until they have can adequately perform a given task on their own. Would you let a 19 year old perform brain surgery just because he has watched a few operations? Well, it seems Kevin Craig’s major qualification for being a city councillor is that he has attended a few city council meetings. Well, so has the guy who tapes the meetings for Shaw TV! Does that make him qualified to be city councillor? In your opinion it probably does. Being a city councillor requires a breadth of knowledge, maturity, and wisdom which I’m afraid is beyond Kevin Craig or most 19 year olds. Kevin may make a fine city councillor one day after he acquires more knowledge and experience.
You state “In a few years all of our city councillors will be in walkers and wheelchairs.” Please don’t tell this to 30 year old Councillor Angela Reid. It will greatly upset her. And the remainder of the new council is fairly young as well with the oldest being Graeme James who is in his fifties. You obviously don’t know what you are talking about and I invite you to get your facts straight.
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Mr. Zeger, there is a reason why you’ve never become a city councillor. Other than having a negative view on just about every point, you tend to read things into whatever gets said. For example ‘world class’ does not necessarily need to be defined as ‘large’ such as Kelowna becoming a Vancouver. It could simply mean that it would be nice for Kelowna to be looked at as a leader among peer cities throughout the world. Compare us to any other city in the 100k – 250k size range, and I would like us to be a ‘world class’ city too. What is wrong with that? There is only one answer…NOTHING.
Here’s your problem Mr. Zeger, your head is stuck INSIDE the box. This is quite fortunately a trait that some people (such as Kevin Craig) do not have. He’s a creative thinking young man who hasn’t been tainted or hardened by circumstances in his life yet. You sound jealous Mr. Zeger. Mind you, if I had run against Kevin in a civic election and he beat me like a drum like he beat you, I might be bitter too.
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Mr. Boyle, you think that I am bitter and jealous because you really don’t know me — do you? All you have is an impression of me that suits your liking. But then, I really don’t care what you think of me.
Regarding Kevin Craig, one thing he definitely is not is an outside the box thinker. What truly original, out of the ordinary ideas does he have? Not a single one. He has attended city council meetings for the past two years and is simply regurgitating what he’s heard at those meetings. And he is politically astute enough to stike a middle of the road position that appeals to a wide range and suck many naive people, like yourself, in. For example, he only wants minor modifications to the downtown CD Zone appeals to both supporters and opponents of the plan.
Lastly, if you decide to post any more of your thoughts here, Mr. Boyle, I hope you can rise above your petty dislike of me and demonstrate that you can make some intelligent observations about the candidates, if you are capable of such.
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