A Little Help Please ...

A reader informed me that Councillor Tom Hempen doesn't reside in the ward he represents.  Naturally, I was intrigued.  He lists a Main St. address on his election related documents posted on the www.newmarket.ca web site.  Yet I noticed when he declines to vote on Main St. related issues, he lists a business that his mother owns as the reason for not voting .  It begs the question, if Councillor Hempen doesn't own the Main St. business, should he be allowed to list that address on his election related documents?  Is that legal?

A search of the Internet has failed to show where Councillor Hempen resides, or if he is the owner of a business in Newmarket, or if he has any ties whatsoever to Ward 4.  Does anyone know?

A politician is described as having clout when they develop a reputation of being strongly influential and for successfully getting things done. In the past, clout has been very difficult to measure or objectively define. In today’s social media environment new metrics provide us with a window on the world of political clout.

(Aptly named) "Klout" is a web-based service that measures a person’s influence on-line. Almost anyone can make a tweet, post a blog, or make a comment on facebook. The simple act of posting something on the Internet does not make the writer influential. The person’s influence comes in the way and manner that others read the posted content, are influenced by it, share it and/or respond to it. Using a variety of measurements, the Klout service gives the user a score which is a good yardstick towards measuring political clout.

The Klout score of person increases when other people, particularly other influential people, read a post and respond or share it with others. The higher the person’s Klout score, the more influential they appear to be. Some prominent politicians like Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Klout Score 66) or Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty (Klout Score 61) demonstrate that they are very influential as they can drive actions from their posts.

The ability to drive action is certainly important but politicians want to be seen to be engaging others on the topics that they care about too. In Stephen Harper’s case, he is influential on the following topics: "Conservative", "Politics" and "Ottawa". People who are interested in those topic areas are keenly influenced by the Prime Minister’s tweets. Dalton McGuinty, on the other hand, is an influencer on the topics of "Politics" "Liberalism" and "Ontario". I believe that both men would feel satisfied being identified as influential in these areas.

Newmarket-Aurora M.P. Lois Brown (Klout score 35) and M.P.P. Frank Klees (Klout score 39) are also engaged in social media and are influential on a variety of topics. In Lois Brown’s case, people who are interested in "Immigration", "Religion & Spirituality" and "Hockey" find her influential; whereas Frank Klees provokes responses from people on the topics of "Conservative Politics" "Politics" and "Aurora".

Newmarket Mayor, Tony Van Bynen, (Klout score 31) is almost as influential as M.P. Brown and M.P.P. Klees but his topics of influence include "Community" and "Aurora".  (Fellow Mayor Rob Ford scores considerably higher with a Klout score of 60, rivalling the Prime Minister and Premier). 

Ward 3 Councillor, Jane Twinney, posted a Klout score of 39 and Chris Emanuel of Ward 7 has a Klout Score of 31.  Both would seem admirable next to the Mayor's Klout.  Late-comers to social media, Regional Councillor Taylor (Klout score 23) and Ward 1 Councillor Tom Vegh (Klout score 12) are still relative neophytes and their score reflects that.  Hopefully, as they learn their way around social media, they will experience higher scores in the future.  Regional Councillor Taylor's topics of influence "Alberta", "Hockey", and "Mississauga" and Councillor Vegh's topics including "Libraries" and "Money" demonstrate that they are really struggling with their social media messaging.  They don't have the same focus as their Council colleagues.

Locally, the hands-down winner of social media as measured by Klout has to be Ward 6 Councillor Maddie Di Muccio with a unbelievable Klout score of 56.  It is a marvel that a municipal councillor from 'small-town' Newmarket is in the same league as such influential people like the Mayor of Toronto, the Premier of Ontario, and the Prime Minister of Canada.  She obviously puts a lot of thought and effort into her social media and her hard work it is paying dividends for her constituents who are always kept informed.  Well done Councillor! 

You may have read in the paper that a local group was planning a "tweet up" to promote the use of Twitter and social networking.  (This blogger received an invitation but had other plans on that evening).  If a suggestion can be made, perhaps the group should arrange an event where Councillor Di Muccio leads a discussion providing advice on her use of social media (she is far and away one of the best, not only locally, but perhaps even nationally)?  I would definitely re-arrange my schedule to attend that event.