Ottawa Media's Hanging Chad Issue

On September 29th, I published my Letter to the Local Editors and I expected it to go largely ignored ... it did.  If there is one thing I have learned about the Ottawa media, they do not take well to being scolded for doing wrong. They have been a polarizing factor in this election and have done so by backing one or the other of the two "leading" candidates in Jim Watson of Larry O'Brien.  Yet, neither of them is an ideal candidate for the mayor's chain.  One of them has done nothing but disregarded the Official City Plan, raise taxes and run the city as a failing business.  The other has borrow liberally from his opponents, has no real direction and will simply lead the Ottawa to the best of his past ability.

Just four days ago I published my post on how Holinshed's poll was not conducted in a scientific or ethical manner.  That poll, for the past seven days, has been the thermometer by which we are measuring the political temperature, but at the same time the poll reads as though a Jim Watson contributor or his campaign itself commissioned the poll.  Before Watson fans get the pitchforks and torches, please note that Holinshed's own mission statement is to have "win elections" through polling.  Good for business; bad for the city of Ottawa with 20 mayoral candidates.  That poll itself, meanwhile, continues to be a lightning rod for "official" reading of how this election might go despite what the online community is saying or showing themselves.

Almost all of the mainstream media networks have all but written off everyone other than Jim Watson and Larry O'Brien.  In fact, the Ottawa Sun published an editorial stating that Clive Doucet and Andy Haydon should drop out of the race.  To their credit, they cited that it was their belief based on their editorial board interview with both Doucet and Haydon, but it is hard to believe with the poll being released that very week of said interviews.  Soon after that near damning editorial came out, the Sun decided they should release a poll asking online readers if Doucet and Haydon should drop out only to be humiliated when the readers decidedly said no, they should stay!  The Ottawa Citizen has not been quiet on their support either.  Randall Denley spouts his vehemence for other candidates other than Watson and O'Brien and even now, Denley who loaded a question on /A\ Morning Ottawa's debate for O'Brien to cherry pick has started to turncoat to Watson.


Between the Ottawa Citizen putting a journalist on TVO's Agenda talking about the potential boondoggle of a tunnel as the only option for Ottawa with only two choices of mayor and the failed poll used to convince Ottawa Sun readers to agree with the misguided editorial board, we are left with little substance in Ottawa's reporting.  Sure, we occasionally see the other candidates.  Mike Maquire gets a little air time with his ideas of privatization of city services; Charlie Taylor talks about his love of people should live, work and play in the same community (not likely to happen); to the gong show of Jane Scharf storming stages, leaving stages, filing human rights commission complaints.  They make for great sound bites over the same old mayor (O'Brien) with better hair (Watson), but I am at a loss.  It has become so bad that social media is starting to lash back at contemporary media for being one sided; they simply want to anoint Watson as mayor and be done with it.  But why?

I have talked with Jim Watson and members of his team on the campaign trail.  I have no opinion about the man personally and his team seem to genuinely like what they are doing.  They're even friendly enough to toss jokes with me now and again in the spirit of good humour and competition.  Maybe it is because they know they have a candidate that is getting the hanging chad of the Ottawa mayoral election?  Is the media in Ottawa truly Fox News for the north? 

So, I guess I'll open a new poll.  I want to see if readers and Tweeps are seeing what I am seeing.  Is the mainstream media of Ottawa going to determine who the next mayor of Ottawa is?  I hope not, but with 13 long days left in this campaign it remains to be seen.  If the only polls are any indication, they show the two horse race is between Doucet and Watson.  Could you imagine?  The mainstream media finally wake up and notice that they were wrong about a horse and started hunting down stories about Doucet and talking about his plans with a modicum of neutrality?

This would be a whole new race... and Doucet has been quietly pacing himself around the bend to hit the back stretch.  One can hope.  Come October 25th, we should simply ignore everything in the media and refresh ourselves with the facts of the campaigns.  The fact remains that we have only two real options; Doucet or Watson.

Photo below taken on the 417, Thanksgiving Monday: are you so sure Ottawa does not need LRT now?  This is an average day in Ottawa... Rush hour is a parking lot.

W.