I’m not going to be mayor kids. In fact, because of some human-centric legislation, I am not even going to be on the ballot! Who is going to break the news to David @ After Stonewall? My plans for pet friendly public transportation, more dog parks, and Council meetings at a local dog agility course seem like a distant dream now.

*le sigh*

This doesn’t mean that we, as passionate and completely awesome citizens of this city should not have a truly epic city to call home. Let’s get out and vote today for the candidate who best meets your needs and wants for the your city!

Many thanks to all for your support through this campaign. I have met so many stellar peeps since I started campaigning back in August. Puggy high fives to you all!

Fear not about my future. I already have plans in the works for my next “pet” project:

Given my avid attention with this election, I think that I am pretty well situated to make a prediction or two about tonight’s outcome. Having convened with my crack team of strategists and advisers…or my team of crack readers and psychics, I foresee:

- A charming outcome with plenty of photo opportunities. The ribbon and scissor industries should be on stand by for the upcoming ribbon cutting ceremony season!

- Based on our research, The Simpsons have been renewed through to 2073, so no retirement hobbies / career aspirations will be sacrificed by this election.

- A blitz of mayoral sit-ins at various voting stations around the city. Best of luck trying to stay ahead of the non-caped stage crasher!

- Lex Luther will wake up from a drunken blitz as the CEO of a multimillion dollar company and the citizens of Ottawa will be a wee bit safer for the next four years. not Iron Man level safer, but not Apocalypse When level panicked either.

Enjoy the after parties kids! I’ll be following as many as possible on Twitter.

Cleo + scribe

Do you recall the premise of the trilogy? Here’s a quick recap – Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) has the opportunity to travel back in time in order to influence the future. Seems plausible no? Maybe not until I win a Delorean on eBay, but no matter. Marty’s circumstances in Back To The Future are quite relevant to your role in Monday’s municipal election.

The citizens of Ottawa need not source a Delorean or befriend a mad albeit, lovable scientest in order to change their future. They need only commit to voting on Monday…for anybody, but Larry. Why anybody but Larry? Do you recall the following quote from Back To The Future?

Biff Tannen: Hello? Hello? Anybody home? Huh? Think, McFly. Think!

Still nothing? Check out my previous posts (try this one and this one) for more specific examples of our history with Larry.

How do you go about voting? Great question! Check out the City of Ottawa’s Election 2010 website for all the information you need to vote.

It’s pretty simple. You will be asked a maximum of three questions:

1) Who is your choice for mayor?

2) Who is your choice for councillor?

3) Who is your choice for School Board trustee? (this may or may not show up).

That’s it. Easy peasy right? One last thing – DON’T FORGET GOVERNMENT ISSUED ID!

Trouble getting to a voting station?  No problemo! Call almost any candidate running for office and s/he will have a volunteer there with a vehicle so quick, it would make Blueline blush!

 Need a crash course on who is running in your neck of the woods? No worries my friend! This pug has you covered. Check out this blog post for all the information you would need.

Why bother voting? I could rant for hours, but I will keep it brief. Ottawa deserves better. Your individual neighbourhood deserves better. Your kid / niece / nephew / buddy’s kid / kid down the street deserve better. Your deserve better and your vote can help make that happen!

Have any other comments, or quetions? Email me. Comment below or Tweet it up. This Pug is putting it into high gear this weekend.

Puggy high fives to everybody!

Cleo + scribe

Do you know who you are voting for yet? Are you alone? Are people around? Look at the person on your left. Then your right. Only one of you has decided who to vote for.

Okay so maybe that is assuming you are all the sort of Ottawa citizens who vote. (Which is likely true if you are reading this.) What kind of pugdit would I be if I did not speak to the results of polls?

In 1947, the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Sciences at the University of Chicago created and maintainstill  a clock. This clock — the Doomsday Clock — doesn’t tick-tock the way you’d expect. Instead, it counts down to midnight: The closer the clock is to midnight, the closer the world is to global disaster. Originally, this clock spoke to the threat of global nuclear war. Nowadays, it is more closely tied to climate change and advances in nanotechnology.

If we had our own Ottawa mayoral election Doomsday Clock, what time would it be? According to an early October poll undertaken by Holinshed Research Group, it would be 17 minutes to midnight.

Yup, 17% of potential voters still favor the incumbent.

Happily, although the end is nigh — election day is fast approaching — there is still time to get voters in the know about candidates, the election, and what it will mean for Ottawa. Stay tuned for an informative post Friday that will help make you an even more wise and informed voter.

Do (and by that we mean vote) or do not (this one shouldn’t even be an option really). There is no try.   Kinda, sorta inspired by YodaPug

Cleo’s scribe.

Before I begin today’s, I need to send out some huge and I mean HUGE puggy high fives with snuggles to David Rimmer, proprieter of After Stonewall Books on Bank Street in Ottawa. If I can muster half the passion David has for making this city great, then we are going to be in for some remarkable times my friends!  

To put it midly, David is ready for change at city hall! To help ensure this, David endorsed our campaign in the very early days. He donated his storefront window to help spread the word about this pug, and most recently, David donated his advertising space in Capital Xtra to the Cleo4Mayor campaign efforts. My tail momentarily uncurled when I heard this! Talk about a passionate and engaged citizen. Thank you David!

Getting back to passion, are you familiar with every mayoral candidate or simply the “big four” and that lady who had to be escorted off stage at a debate? Well, we need to better than this. There are some wickedly passionnate people on the ballot that you should know about!

How do you find all of these candidates? No worries! Will Samuel is a blogger that I met on Twitter. He is an avid Clive Doucet supporter and he posted a great summary piece with links to all of the candidates web content. Check out his blog Mayoral Candidates at a Glance here.

If this campaign has taught this pug anything, it would be that Ottawa is filled with insanely creative, intelligent, and passionate people. David Rimmer and Will Samuel are two that were highlighted today, but Cesar Bello is a mayoral candidate who is running because he is still fuming about how this city handled the bus strike! Jane Scharf is a ridiculously committed advocate for a plethora of social issues in this city. How can you not want to know about these peeps? Skip Facebook twice today and check out a few new candidates.  We are down to crunch time with this election, so let’s get informed, then get out and vote!

Lastly, my humans wanted me to thank everybody for the congratulatory messages that were received via Facebook, Twitter, and email. They also promise to take this pug’s aspiring political career into consideration when planning big events!

Off to the crate for the day!

Cleo and scribe

Greetings all and pardon the delay in blogging, tweeting, etc.

My humans are hitched and I have regained access to the family Mac, so let the blogging begin again!

With the election day less than two weeks away, this pug has some work to do in terms of catching up! Luckily, there have been some amazing tweeps who have been Crushing It! Today, we want to highlight the best example of citizen engagement from this municipal election to date, the #Iwantamayorwho hashtag from @hellokaitlin.

If you haven’t been following the #Iwantamayorwho hashtag, then you need to start following it yesterday. Why should you follow this hashtag? It’s pretty simple – communities are built on conversations. This hashtag is the best example of facilitating this conversation.

josh_greenberg #iwantamayorwho is contemplative, listens to others, encourages talk, and isn’t prone to outrageous bursts of rhetorical nonsense #OTTvote

PSchammy #IWantAMayorWho is not afraid of saying things that we might not want to hear.

andrealeegrant #iwantamayorwho has a compelling vision of convenient, comfortable, and affordable public transit… and is effective enough to sell it

hellokaitlin #iwantamayorwho isn’t going to pretend that they can cut our city’s deficit without raising taxes and/or affecting services.

Can you believe that so much awesome could fit into 140 characters or less? This pug is continually blown away by the quality and passion consistently displayed by Ottawans. If elected mayor, my communications team will be monitoring this idea around the clock and responding to the feedback provided. How is this promise different from any other political promise? Other mayoral candidates don’t seem as invested in the potential of this specific twitter stream. If you will excuse a temporary sentence or two of bluntness, some mayoral candidate(s) rebuke the value of #iwantamayorwho by claiming that a single item political platform is sufficient.

No one can argue that the current mayoral candidates are great communicators. All have policy papers, platforms, copious time in front of all of media, but how many of them are bringing their A game when it comes to listening and engaging with citizens? #iwantamayor provides a stellar opportunity for mayoral candidates to participate in a conversation with citizens who are charged up and looking to participate.

Puggy high five to @hellokaitlin for this EPIC idea.  This is a hashtag that I cannot turn my little, bulging eyes away from.

Puggy high fives to you all.

Cleo and scribe.

In a yet to be confirmed report, Cleo’s team has received emails alleging that she has been identified as the ringleader in an illegal vote rigging scheme where votes were being traded for fertilizer. These alleged interactions are said to have transpired in the parking lot of a Petsmart!

These allegations would make any pug’s tail uncurl. Cleo has prepared a statement in reaction to the heinous allegations. It can be found here

Until we can get to the bottom of these allegations*, Cleo will be taking some time off from blogging and other social media platforms.

Cleo would like to thank of all her supporters for their ongoing support and encouragement. In the interim, please continue to educate yourselves on all of the candidates in order to make the best decision for you and the future of our city.

Puggy high fives to you all!

Cleo’s scribe

* and by getting to the bottom of these allegations, one of Cleo’s scribe’s is getting married this weekend and the other scribe is being a most stellar human and attending the festivities. Cleo’s scribe that is getting married would like to apologize for the oversight of scheduling a wedding in the midst of a municipal election campaign!

Look ho!

What is that? Is it a bird? A plane?

Why, it’s moving so fast — faster than a speeding train!

(Not that I believe in trains, strictly speaking.)

Ho! hither — it’s…it’s!

ANDREW HAYDON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

***vrrrrrrrrrroooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmm noises***

Or, or, maybe…

***wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooossssssssssssssssshhhh noises***

None of the hundreds of other candidates can possibly get the job done. Ottawa needs a man with an uncanny ability to govern this great city. A man whose very name is on the city council’s chamber. This nation’s capital needs a hero, and who better than I? I do not need campaign funding, for I have money. I do not need lawn signs, because the world will know me for my deeds. If O’Brien and Watson will not shepherd my plan for transit then I shall enter this race and defeat them all and be mayor of Ottawa. BUT I AM NOT A ONE TRICK PONY. Nay, It was I who championed the transitway, and I who kept Nepean debt free whilst in office. I. Andrew Haydon. Me.

And so ends our sniff into the mind of a super candidate.  We could have stayed longer but the nose of a pug is a delicate thing. But be wary of men who fly in at the 11th hour, as the folks at superdickery.com have warned us, Superman is a Dick.

- Cleo’s scribe

Dear Ottawa,

This time around I promise to be a fiscally responsible mayor. Sure, I tried to give myself a $32,000 raise immediately after being elected last time around, but after some bad publicity I decided against that. And, that was years ago! Think of all the things I have done since then.

Maybe don’t think of the bribery charges.

Like, for example, I promised not to raise taxes!

Okay so I raised taxes. But budgeting is hard. How could I have known? Plus, promises don’t really count as promises if they are made by politicians. It’s part of the game. By the by, I promise to freeze taxes. Again. This time I will do it for sures.

Let’s freeze salaries while we are at it. I understand that freezing wages during a period of inflation effectively cuts wages, leaving less money with the Ottawaians to re-invest in the economy, but maybe you don’t.

I promise to continue to govern Ottawa in such a way that brings council together. I might even give all council members a gold coin of recognition. Instead of just some of them.

Probably not though.

Re-elect me. I promise you more of the same. And that is one promise I can keep.

Warm regards,

L.O.

- Cleo’s scribe

I convinced my humans to let me run for mayor because they believe that I can do a better job at leading this city than our current mayor. To this end, I don’t think that we have framed the Cleo4mayor campaign as an anti-Larry campaign, but a campaign to highlight how easy and important it is to participate in municipal government.

If you haven’t already seen Mr. O’Brien’s video announcing his bid to run for re-election, then I suggest you check it out. Every time I watch it, I can’t help of think of another politician…

Is Ottawa prepared to endure another term with this level and style of leadership?  This Pug certainly hopes not! I spent a lot of time snuggled up with my nerdier human following Obama’s election and I was amazed at the opportunities presented to the average citizen to have a voice, and participate in government. Massive examples of small actions, huge levels of engagement and participation and a simple, back to basic Yes We Can mentality is what this city needs and deserves!

I have blogged at length about the relative failure of most candidate’s to effectively leverage social media. Nobody, but nobody has failed more spectacularly than our current mayor. Consistently reporting inaccuracies, pseudo-spamming, and not engaging with citizens are the tip of the iceberg!

Elections are a democratic exercise that this pug holds near and dear to my puggy heart. I acknowledge that our current mayor may be re-elected.  Should this be the case, then we have a responsible to hold Mr. O’Brien accountable for his actions and his inactions.  The same holds true of any of the candidates. Mr. O’Brien has simply proven, time and time again that he requires a very short leash and copious amounts of remedial training!

Puggy high five to all of you!

While reflecting on my campaign yesterday during crate time, I happened to catch Ottawa morning on CBC Radio 1. Luckily for me, they were discussing the role of social media in this year’s election. Talk about a subject near and dear to this pug’s heart. Given the amount of crate time that I have, my ability to get out and shake paws and lick babies is somewhat limited. I try to make up for this by using social media tools. This morning’s blog will expand on some of the points made yesterday and offer some kibble for thought on using social media.

First up on today’s agenda, the decision to use social media tools or not.  This decision is a poker based decision. You are either all in or you should fold and walk away from the table. Don’t believe me? What is the first word in social media? SOCIAL! Creating an account and not using it is in poor form and sends a signal that this might be where all the cool cats hang out, but you aren’t interested in the conversation, and what other users have to say. Think of social media like a cocktail party – you can show up or not, but if you do show up, then you better be ready to schmooze with the other guests right?

Second point of failure – one way communication.  Big kudos to Ian Capstick for highlighting this yesterday! If you generate content through blogging, your website, a YouTube video, Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, etc. and do not interact, follow-up and/or acknowledge the feedback, then you need to fold your hand and walk away from the table. The opportunity cost of one way communication using social media is twofold. On the one hand, the individual who is trying to communicate with you may now think that you are playing the douche card by not taking the time to answer him/her, when they took the time to approach you. On the other hand, not answering that person has a larger impact because that conversation is not isolated from other users. Anyone following the candidates and/or the hashtags for the municipal election can detect that you aren’t chatting it up. Would you knock on someone’s door and speak in sound bytes from your platform while ignoring any specific questions, concerns, or feedback?

The final bone of contention this pug has with mayoral candidates and their use of social media is the missed opportunities. Want to make up for your one sided, douchey bahaviour on Twitter? Have a Twitter FAQ session where any individual can ask a question. Given the recent reaction to local political debates, I would wager that the first candidate to genuinely commit to this would see a respectable return on the time invested.  Not ready for that level of commitment? Then start small. Search for the #iwantamayorwho hashtag on Twitter and save it. Now, read it and jump in on the conversation already. Direct replies to those who are participating in this discussion is a no brainer. Responding to the larger audience should have been done 5 minutes after the hashtag started.

Finally, a word of caution moreso than anything else, bring your A game to social media. Misleading math, inconsistent commentary and flip flopping will be picked off, cross referenced and communicated back to the group at speeds that individual candidates and their respective campaign teams cannot compete with. Keep it genuine, keep it clean and keep it up.

How do you feel about your mayor’s ability to Twitter and engage using social media? I am being beckoned to my crate for the day, but I have wifi access, so leave a comment, Tweet me, email me or stop me on my daily walks. This pug would love to chat!