One of the great things about municipal elections is that they’re not steeped in partisan politics like other levels of government. Voters will often consider candidates based on what they say rather than their party affiliation. As a voter, though, this also means that you have to put in more effort to see what a municipal campaign is about.
Cameron Dykstra, senior research associate with Y Station communications, has some tips for how to do your research.
“Never make a judgment on people based solely on how they are on social media,” Dykstra says. He points out that many candidates have a social-media team who does their work for them. So, that ‘really nice’ person could be an intern.
Dykstra says if you’re looking at a federal or provincial candidate their personal perspective isn’t really that important. “It’s so determined by the parties and they have this machine that puts out what they want you to see. And even when they put out their little Facebook Live interviews it’s very scripted and there’s only certain things they’re allowed to say.”
By contrast, at the municipal level, you can get more individual personality and character from candidates, “That’s a good thing and a bad thing because some of them are crazy people,” Dykstra says. “And that is part of democracy – crazy people are allowed to run, too.”
Dykstra believes you should look at the candidate’s websites, but that may not provide you with all answers to your questions. “For me, it is about looking at the policy and platforms … I’ve been looking through the candidate websites here in Edmonton and Calgary, and no one has anything you could call a platform. It’s all just broad platitudes about ‘We need to do this better’. Very few of them are like ‘I want to divert 2 per cent of this budget to accomplish X.’ And that is fine. I don’t think you need that in a municipal election at this stage.”
He says those big picture statements can still tell you a lot.
“It’s really useful to look between the lines of how they approach government and how their experience transitions to a belief they hold,” Dykstra says. You can see where a candidate might have a chip on their shoulder about the role of government, and the role that people play in decision-making, he says. By comparison, you may also find that a candidate is more institutionalist – a person who believes in working within the system of government.
“Even the way that candidates talk about how they will govern is interesting to me. The populist candidates make it pretty clear they want you to read between the lines,” Dykstra says.
The great thing about municipal candidates is that you can also track their voting records. Dykstra says this can be a wealth of information. “That is actually an important thing to do because lots of folks make grandiose statements but you’ll see where they vote and how they vote.”
Of course, this sort of research may favour an incumbent candidate so Dykstra also suggests looking at who else is excited about a candidate and why. In Edmonton, Dykstra offers an example: “There’s a couple labour-affiliated candidates so I can tell if they’re a serious candidate by which labour activists in the city are supporting them, versus who is being suspiciously quiet about their candidacy.”
Four Things To Use For Research
Committee and Council Voting Records
You usually have to look through the minutes for how incumbent candidates are voting. The City of Calgary has a lovely dashboard that makes this easy.
Advertising Spending on Facebook Pages
This gives you an idea of the type of war chest the candidate is dealing with. You can also look at political organizations, such as Calgary’s Future or Act for Edmonton. You can also view what ads they’ve created, which can give you an idea of their priorities. You can find the search function here.
Social Media
Facebook and Twitter reveal more about what a candidate prioritizes than their website might. Edmonton and Calgary both have great information posted about where to find candidates’ social media, but more rural campaigns may require just searching for the candidate on Twitter or Facebook directly.
Previous Campaign Finance Disclosures
In Edmonton, our friends at Taproot Media do a great job of collecting campaign finance disclosures in an easy-to-read format. All Alberta municipalities collect this information so, in many cases, you can still find it by looking on your municipality website. See Banff and Spruce Grove for example. If it’s not there, email the city administration. For new candidates, you can always ask them to disclose this information before the election.
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Top Photo: Adapted from original