A veteran Halifax politician admits to scooping up the domain names of a potential rival in the upcoming municipal election – and now Councillor Linda Mosher appears to be having deep regrets.
Last week, the CBC reported Shawn Cleary was planning to challenge Mosher for her seat in the October election, but when he tried to register his domain names, he discovered his .com and .ca domains had already been registered by Mosher.
Cleary called the move ‘Dirty’
“Certainly a lot of people will look at this and it will either confirm for them their view of who she is, or it’ll just be a sort of a ‘well, that’s kind of politics — it’s dirty.’ But I certainly haven’t bought her names and I wouldn’t dare,” the CBC quoted Cleary as saying.
Twitter of course, had its moment
What is in a name – Linda Mosher
Where a woman seeks to control the name of another and in doing so destroys her… https://t.co/0pDxEGH6NR
— John Wesley Chisholm (@JWCdom) May 14, 2016
Linda Mosher
Instead of https://t.co/mvCMSNAqaG, Linda Mosher should have been registering https://t.co/blcNcKdw03. https://t.co/uD0gPQalYn #hfxpoli
— Ryan Van Horne (@RyanVanHorne) May 13, 2016
use to work with Shawn at St Mary's about a 12 yrs ago. This is dirty pool https://t.co/oYkf6htCF3
— Bill Zebedee (@Bill_Zebedee) May 13, 2016
BREAKING: Linda Mosher's new Campaign Manager. pic.twitter.com/QnQhe6Kr19
— Andy Bowers (@evilpez4) May 14, 2016
Releasing Domain Names
On Friday, Mosher defended her decision to buy the domain names, saying she did so on the advice of her campaign manager, but by Monday morning, she was singing a different tune.
In a statement, Mosher said she was releasing the domains shawncleary.com and shawncleary.ca, which she now says were purchased on the advice of a “website adviser.”
She now considers the matter closed and will offer no further comment.
Councillor Mosher released the following statement Monday morning.
Recently I made the decision, based on recommendations from a website advisor, to register the internet domain names (.ca and .com) of a known candidate for the 2016 municipal election.
This type of campaign tactic is not something that I would normally do, nor even think of doing. In all my previous municipal campaigns I have maintained a positive, “high road” campaign despite some extremely negative campaigns by other candidates. I was ill-advised to use this means to address potential misinformation and negative statements that may arise during the campaign. However, it was my decision and I should not have used it.
However, based on constituent feedback, I can now see how some people misinterpret my intention and understand how they are disappointed with my decision to register these domain names. Notwithstanding political attacks on me which have been at times unfair, lacking in balance, and suffused with misinformation,
I am proud of my record as a HRM Councillor. My decisions with respect to the domain names were intended for posting of factual and accurate information to counter any misinformation that may be circulating in the upcoming election. I see now that the proper venue to continue to display the facts is my own website. I have worked very hard to advance the interests of not only my constituents but the whole of the HRM. And I have always done it by attempting to the best of my abilities to keep to the moral high road and to keep the political discourse fair, substantive and respectful.
As an elected official it is important to listen to resident feedback. I respect the resident opinions that have been expressed and in this spirit of fairness, I am releasing the two domain names. I look forward to the upcoming campaign that focuses on real issues and opportunities facing the residents of Halifax and District 9.
I now consider the matter closed and I will have no further comment.
Sincerely,
Linda Mosher,
Councillor, Halifax Regional Municipality
Let the name games begin!
