How I've been following the Ottawa election online

I’ve heard a lot of complaining during this election campaign about how local candidates have failed to really harness the power of the internet and social media. The other side of the story is that during this election, citizens have really upped their game, providing excellent commentary, conversation and reporting on the candidates and their platforms. Some of my faves:

 * 
The folks over at
[
 Apartment 613
](http://www.apt613.ca/2010/08/22/apartment613-municiple-election-coverage/)
have led the way this year, most notably profiling every mayoral candidate and setting up a
[
 multimedia mayoral debate
](http://ottawastart.com/tuesday-oct-5-debate-2-0-envisioning-ottawas-future/)
.

 * 
Blake Batson, who ran for a council seat last time, is on a bit of a crusade to help non-incumbent candidates win a seat, and it makes for great reading at
[
 Perspective Ottawa
](http://www.perspectiveottawa.com/)
.

 * 
And of course there's Twitter.  The
[
 #ottvote
](http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23ottvote)
hashtag will tell you more about how Ottawans are really feeling than  any poll or statistic.  And there's some really constructive  conversation happening there too -- in particular
[
 @kaitli's #iwantamayorwho
](http://ottawastart.com/i-want-a-mayor-who/)
meme.

 * 
Honourable mentions:
[
 Ottawa Election News
](http://www.ottawaelectionnews.com/)
,
[
 Vote Ottawa 2010
](http://ottawacityhall.wordpress.com/)
,
[
 Mos Publicus
](http://mospublicus.blogspot.com/)
,

Mainstream media reporters are producing some great info too. I’ve enjoyed:

 * 
David Reevely (Ottawa Citizen) deserves an honourary spot on council and/or the key to the city for the tremendous job he's done analysing mayoral platforms and calling out bullshit on his
[
 Greater Ottawa
](http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/greaterottawa/default.aspx)
blog.
  


 * 
[
 Alastair Steele's blog on the CBC web site
](http://www.cbc.ca/ottawa/features/ottawavotes2010/blog.html)
(although I wish I could subscribe via RSS)

 * 
Ken Gray's
[
 The Bulldog
](http://communities.canada.com/ottawacitizen/blogs/bulldog/default.aspx)
(Ottawa Citizen) has almost

 too much

content - with a ton of press releases, videos and commentary posted almost every day in the campaign.

 * 
The
[
 Sun & The City
](http://blogs.canoe.ca/cityhall/)
blog has been right in the fray as well, with reports from Jon Willing and Susan Sheering.

 * 
Rogers Television has posted
[
 candidate videos and ward debates
](http://www.rogersondemand.com/channels/rogers_tv/municipal_ward_coverage_ottawa)
for just about everyone running in this year's election.

So, what election web sites have you been reading?

**

Related: ** Ottawa Election Guide