4 January 2010 No Comment

From Mondovile

Who will have the best social media strategy for the November 2010 Toronto municipal election? Mayoral candidate George Smitherman is laying low until spring; Rocco Rossi can’t decide whether to tweet under his partisan @liberalrocco handle or go for @roccothevoteTO; Giorgio Mammoliti promises a “no-nonsense campaign” that probably has no role for a Twitter consultant.

Back when nobody was heeding much attention to these details, though, compulsively chronicling the 2006 vote via Web 2.0 was Himy Syed — who planted himself on the ballot of central-west downtown Ward 19 to watch the process from the inside.

This morning, he tried being first to file candidate papers at City Hall for another run to replace Councillor Joe Pantalone as deputy mayor, but was beaten to the punch by Councillor John Parker, just ahead of Councillor Howard Moscoe.

First candidate for 2010 Toronto municipal election: @HiMYSYeD, Ward 19

Making a bigger show of his registration is school trustee Josh Matlow, seeking to fill a vacant council chair in midtown — and inviting reporters to a scrum after submitting his paperwork.

Syed plans to explain his ecological vision at the foot the Windshare Windmill at Exhibition Place on Wednesday at 10 a.m., expecting restless reporters assigned to the election beat to turn out.

Otherwise, he’ll just cover it himself.