Rating: NNNNN
One election out of the way, one more to go. The lawn signs haven’t really gone up yet, but already the major candidates for mayor of Toronto have staked out their places in cyberspace.
As with any Web enterprise, aside from music and movie piracy, it’s hard to say what impact online pitching has on the average voter. Who really checks out the candidates’ Web sites to see what they are promising? Fan sites are virtually nonexistent.
During the provincial election, the Web sites for the three major candidates were almost identical in tone (boring), and Ernie’s camp used old-fashioned paper press releases to call Dalton a “kitten eater.”
Shut out of the televised debate, cyberspace did give parties like the Greens and the Communists a platform to make their pitches, but was anyone actually paying attention?
True, Barbara Hall is fighting in court to stay in the race after rivals alleged that the Friends of Barbara Hall Web site (www.friendsofbarbarahall. com) jumped the gun and began fundraising before the race officially began. And in America, Arnold Schwarzenegger is in trouble for an old interview dug up by the muckrakers at The Smoking Gun (www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/arnoldoui1.html).
There are 44 candidates running for the mayoralty in this city. Many of them have Web sites, although curiously, a search for an official site for one of the most visible applicants, busker Ben Kerr, only turns up http://i.hoder. com/archives/2003/06/030609_007335.shtml, a site in Persian.
Would any of these sites change your vote? Here the five major candidates’ Web sites are rated on the basis of originality, design and the amount and type of information available. These ratings are definitely not endorsements. They’re also wildly subjective, but that’s politics for you.
www.millerformayor.ca
Miller’s site gets straight to the point, with a quick pitch and then a graphics-friendly guide to the major issues of the vote. The pop-up box for the October 8 Robert Kennedy Jr. waterfront chat is an attention grabber, but I hate pop-ups. More attractive are the hefty endorsements from Jane Jacobs and Olivia Chow, the broom logo and the watercolour of Miller that leads into his pitch for arts support.
Originality: NNN
Design: NNNN
Information available: NNNN
A bit light on personality (sound familiar?), much of Hall’s bare-bones site is geared to getting the public involved in her campaign. The biggest icons are to sign up for a lawn sign, forward the site to friends or give cash. There’s plenty of info, but as of Monday, October 6, the lead item (about government commitments to the city) hadn’t been updated since the previous week’s provincial election.
Originality: NN
Design: NNN
Information available: NNNN
www.johntory.ca
Brightly designed, Tory’s site begins with an endorsement (from a former publisher of the Toronto Sun) and lists the big issues (crime, banning panhandling and a couple of vague ideas about citizen inclusiveness and restoring trust in government) down the side. Even if you don’t agree with his politics or ideas, you know exactly what they are from the get-go.
Originality: NNN
Design: NNNN
Information available: NNNN
www.johnnunziata.com
Plenty of white space, no flashing graphics, an annoying pop-up box and a big, smiling picture of the candidate welcome you here. Nunziata’s platform is presented on the left of the page, he’s got a regularly updated graphic showing Toronto’s current weather, and as of writing this, the clock in the middle of the page was an hour ahead. You might want to fix that.
Originality: NNN
Design: NNNN
Information available: NNN
www.jakobek.ca
The most original and best designed site of them all. The Tom TV and Tom Radio ideas on the right are excellent (although the video links were broken when I tried them), as is the information on who can vote and when. On the left, Jakobek has links to TV, radio and print media from around the city. Read his platform and then see what other people are saying about him.
No info on the MFP scandal, though (surprise, surprise).
Originality: NNNNN
Design: NNNNN
Information available: NNN
mattg@nowtoronto.com
