By Jeff Samsonow, for the EP.com team
Before we start doing stuff we should probably tell you just what is we plan to do.
EdmontonPolitics.com is a collaboration of Edmonton bloggers, podcasters, writers, developers, and anyone else who wants in. We want to cover the 2010 municipal and school board elections like it’s never been done.
We’ll be online with words, photos, and videos. There will be straightforward reporting on wards, candidates and issues. But we also want to have fun and offer satirical and sarcastic takes on the same. There will likely be plenty of opinion thrown around, but lots of facts too.
Even the idea of this website begins with collaboration. After seeing Calgary bloggers join together to cover their election, an important one with the mayor’s chair wide-open, conversation started here, between Dave Cournoyer and Jeff Samsonow, about a similar effort in the capital city.
Dave went to the man holding the EdmontonPolitics.com URL, Chris LaBossiere. Chris had both Edmonton and Calgary names, hoping to capture the essence of a local media oriented site, focused on political discussion. He wanted it driven by citizen journalists and pundits. Seeing what the Calgary team had already done down south, Chris and Dave quickly had an agreement on doing the same kind of thing here, and we had our website.
Dave gathered up a crew of bloggers and, as with all good meetings, we hatched our plans over a beer.
Chris wanted to see the site names formalize political banter into something like a traditional media product, leveraging technology and enthusiasts. “A place for grown up bloggers, acting as adolescent media tycoons.”
We all wanted the same. And we hope to go beyond covering the election, reporting, commenting, and having fun with it. We want to make sure Edmontonians are all on the same page.
As our in-house web guru Sally Poulsen puts it: The Internet allows access to so much information it should be used as a tool.This website should be a way to engage people, in ways the traditional media may not be, in new ways.
One thing that will mean is an election glossary. Acronyms, buzzwords, obscure city reports, and people not always top of mind are going to be mentioned in news and blog coverage of the 2010 races. Read the glossary, add to it, make sure stories aren’t just understandable to the political junkies.
We want to make sure this is a place where you don’t feel embarrassed to ask what something means. People don’t really vote in municipal elections, and one thing that might help is explaining things as plainly as we can.
Also watch for links and items about just how the election works, where you can vote and what ward you live in. (The school board wards are different from the city wards, and we’ve got 12 city wards for the first time.)
It should be noted that since not everyone involved writes and reports for a full-time job (especially if you’re helping us out with coverage) we will come into stories by way of what’s normally known in the journalism world as bias. (Through our relationships and writing about things we’re interested in.)
We’ll be up front with you about that stuff, because we like you. And we think transparency is the new objectivity.
In summation, we leave it to Adam Rozenhart: “EdmontonPolitics.com should be THE definitive alternative news source for the forthcoming municipal election. A place for debate, discussion, humour, and a repository of information created by and for the citizens of Edmonton.”
And if you aren’t going to vote, you at least need a place to read stuff that will get you all riled up about what those politicians are doing with your money.
dz, Alex’s rundown on potential candidates is probably getting outdated (we’re almost into the real heart of election season now), and I don’t believe council candidates have to live where they run/represent. (Though, I think school board candidates have to.)
As for where Mr. Diotte lives, you can wait for a response here, or hit him up at this website: http://kerrydiotte.com
Kerry Diotte;
I see from this report that you were listed as a “probable” candidate in Ward 6.
Care to explain that?
Where do you live?
Jeff … I think I’ve told you guys how much I admire the fact you’re giving the civic election more coverage than the mainstream media.
So let’s discuss some issues. Yeah, you’ve noted in your blog I’ve got a legal action against my employer but let’s take it from there.
That wasn’t taken lightly and I’ve decided to go from journalism into politics.
There have been a few people who took that avenue — including Ralph Klein, Rene Levesque and even Pierre Trudeau. Regardless of what you think of their politics, I believe they did OK taking the plunge from journalism to politics. It’s all about ideas. And we journalists have a few of them.
I gave everything I could to journalism when I was involved in that. I volunteered to head up the local chapter of the Canadian Association of Journalists when few other people cared and was a national director of the CAJ for years. I put in a lot of hours for a good cause.
I did that because I believed in a cause…that journalism is a vital aspect of our democracy.
What you do and what I did is vital.
I still believe that very strongly. Now I have chosen another field and I will dedicate myself full-bore to being the best politician I can be. I know that sounds like an oxymoron to people, but I really want to make a difference.
As a politician, I will do the best I can to be good for taxpayers and good to journalists. It’s all about public accountability.
So, long story short, give me a chance to debate my campaign platform as opposed to a labour dispute between me and my former employer. It’s now before the courts and they will decide what they decide.
At the doors in Edmonton in Ward 11 I’m hearing there’s concern about public safety, core services — such as roads and transit — and increases in taxes that exceed the rate of inflation. Those are the concerns of regular folks I will take to city hall.
I really do respect what you folks are doing with this website — to get the debate and discussion going. I invite feedback to http://www.kerrydiotte.com.
Thanks for doing what you’re doing and let’s continue the discussion on the issues long before people mark their ballot on Oct. 18.
It’s important. Thanks.
Cheers,
-Kerry
Thanks Jeff! Alex’s blog was really helpful.
Hey Sarah, I just posted a look at the most recent election and election-related stories and it’s got the 4 candidates in Ward 11 (which is the one without an incumbent).
There are a few others names in the race, and we’ll probably see more through the summer. Check Alex’s predictions, which include some of the already declared candidates: http://alexabboud.wordpress.com/2010/05/18/pyramid-power-ranking-the-2010-edmonton-city-council-races/
So far I’ve only heard of one non-incumbent running in this year’s election. Can anyone predict/anticipate when we will begin to see more candidates coming forward? This is my first year living in Edmonton and I seem to recall much more activity at this point in other cities I’ve lived in.
Lots of time to talk collaboration before the election Kenn!
We just have to figure out what we’re doing first.
As per the last municipal election (and the last provincial election), Connect2Edmonton again intends to establish an online election forum for all regional candidates … including school board candidates.
Perhaps we could arrange a meeting with your group to co-ordinate our resources and coverage for the election?
Kenn Bur
C2E Co-chair
Thanks for the response Christopher and I look forward to the coverage Sally!
Thanks for the question Heather! We’ll be doing a story on it in the weeks to come!
Hi Heather,
I’m sufficiently geeky to be able to answer your questions.
There are 12 councillors, nine public trustees and seven Catholic trustees.
To accommodate those differences, the city is divided up into three configurations, one with 12 wards, one with nine wards and one with seven wards.
When you show up to vote, you will be asked whether you’d like a public school ballot or a Catholic school ballot.
Either way, you only choose one trustee candidate.
Because knowledge about school board democracy and governance tends to be limited, Dale Hudjik (@stolenfire on Twitter) has started an organization devoted to responsive trusteeship. At http://responsivetrustee.com you can find information about the upcoming election as well as a list of people who have declared their intention to run for a position on the public school board.
In law, the provincial government retains the right to fire any council or board perceived to be acting in a dysfunctional way. As Dave Cournoyer has outlined, Danielle Smith was among a number of elected trustees dismissed in Calgary several years ago.
Hello,
So glad you put this up and I will be following you all here!
As someone who has voted many times and *gulp* should know this, I would love to ask the first embarrassing question and suggest it could be a whole blog post perhaps?
Can somebody explain why the school board wards are different from the city wards? Is it just to confuse us? I am pretty sure that is the reason but just in case there is more to it…
I don’t have children in school so I feel I know very little so can you tell me what to expect on the ballot and do I pick one or two candidates this year?? It would be really great to actually understand this really important, yet often neglected, part of our municipal election.
I hope you can help,
Thanks!
Thanks, Karen!
And we had pretty much planned to fill the quiet election days of July by only making fun of Edmonton’s news coverage.
While my traditional media outlet is aiming to engage people in new ways for this election as well, this is a great idea, and I salute you. I hope our sites will give each other plenty to link to. (I suspect you will also find reason to poke fun at our efforts at times. We can take it.) Your goal of putting Edmontonians on the same page heading into the election is a noble one, and a shared one. Best of luck.
This sounds great! I’m looking forward to following the discussions (maybe putting my 2 cents in every once in a while) and I intend to notify all my Social Studies teacher colleagues of this blog so they can use it with students. Thanks for doing this!
I hope so!
I’ve also got a couple of people, who are online but not usual suspects in the political blogging realm, I’m going to try to get to write for us. They just don’t know it yet.
Even though I’m already quoted, I’d just like to add that I’m really looking forward to the contributions of the entire online community… any chance we could pull some offliners into this space as well? that would be awesome!