Coming up to Election Day on Monday, I’m still firmly in the “undecided” column. I thought that I’d made up my mind last week, but then a sharp but seemingly unofficial NDP operative (a sort of socialist “Mr. Wendy”) knocked on our door this morning and laid on a good seduction routine.

There’s one thing I need help on: Dody Crane’s web effort is so poor as to be archetypical of “how not to use the web to get elected.”

The website is poorly designed, contains almost no content save some blurry photos of Jack Layton and Leo Broderick, and Dody’s blog [sic] bears out the wisdom of Darren Peters’ comment that “it’s probably better not to have a blog than to do one poorly.” (Blog summary: 36 days, 5 posts in total; complete absence of content or feeling; Aliant spelled wrong, twice).

Now if I put my compassionate hat on, I can conjure up some reasons like “Dody and her team are more concerned with talking to electors than getting a good website.”

But that doesn’t stop the nightmares wherein, under an NDP government, all the photos are blurry and we enter a sort of “graphic design recession.”

And I can’t help but thinking that, in 2004, if you don’t understand the importance of the web, and can’t muster the resources necessary for a respectable web effort, perhaps you’re missing some skills fundamental to governing. If only the skills to realize “we don’t have the resources or eye for this so we won’t do it.”

I’m open-minded enough to be convinced that I shouldn’t factor this in to my decision on polling day (and smart enough, even if I do, to not have it be a significant determining factor). But it scratches at me in the same way it would if, say, Dody’s campaign workers answered the phone “Dody Crane’s office, sorry we can’t help you here.”

Thus comments are welcome and encouraged.

Although Jevon and I are usually on different perceptual planes, I find his essay Why the client hates your software is bang-on. I would go one step further: the programmer is the software. The actual code is simply a prosthetic device they wear to increase their reach and efficiency.

In a dramatic switch from “institutional buffet style” to “urban museum café style,” the Confederation Centre of the Arts has gutted its restaurant and recast it as Mavor’s Bistro, the “Mavor” an homage to Mavor Moore, founding director of the Charlottetown Festival.

There’s no doubt that the aesthetics of the place have improved dramatically. Gone is the grey institutional feel, the chichi prison approach to decor that used to permeate the Centre. It’s been replaced by brighter colours, better furniture, cleaner lines. You could be at the MOMA or MassMOCA if you squint your eyes and ignore the giant moose down the hall. It’s a very pleasant space for lunch.

Indeed the aesthetics of the entire site have taken an upturn. There’s bright signage everywhere (I believe it’s now impossible to lose your way), better washrooms (apparently the women’s washroom for the main theatre has gone from something like 4 stalls to 21 stalls, a development that apparently warranted a private “21 flush salute” when it opened), and the old “basement dinge” feel has been almost completely eradicated.

Mavor’s Bistro’s marketing pitch is that they “proudly serve” Starbucks Coffee. Presumably this is a pitch both for the local “wow, just like the big city” consumer and, more importantly, for the big city “just like home” coffee drinker. I don’t question this decision, but it does seem a little much to so loudly trumpet that you proudly serve Starbucks. I can think of better things to be proud of.

Food and drink-wise, there’s some room to grow. The menu is interesting, and offers a good, broad selection. Execution needs work, however.

My iced mocha coffee had a big glop of chocolate syrup sitting at the bottom, and about twice as much ice as was required. It wasn’t Starbucks-level quality, in other words.

Catherine ordered the sushi plate, and came away pretty convinced that it was the worst sushi she’d ever had: almost-raw rice, poor wrapping, uninspiring contents, the wrong soy sauce for sushi, and no pickled ginger (the chopsticks were nice, however). They should get their sushi from Monsoon, because they’ll never make it better than Monsoon does.

I had the grilled chicken and swiss cheese wrap, which was actually pretty good. Not life-altering, but well prepared with fresh ingredients. The accompanying salad was drenched in roasted red pepper dressing; I should have asked for it on the side.

Service was top-notch: friendly, efficient, quick and knowledgeable.

Overall, the experience was so different from the old “all you can eat roast turkey Thursday buffet” to make it almost inconceivable that we were eating in the same place.

We’ll be back to Mavor’s over the season, I’m sure: I expect the problems in the kitchen will improve as the staff gain more experience.

Our next stop: the new Mackenzie Theatre, which has apparently thrown off its own dinge, and emerged a bright, delightful space to watch music and theatre (caveat: this description came from a Centre employee). Apparently there are plans underfoot to programme the Mackenzie ever weekend this winter, which should prove a welcome respite from the endless drear.

Here’s a useful reference to typing “curly” quotes on a Mac.

Following on from our successful series of candidate meetings earlier in the month, we’re having a “watch the election results come in” get together here at 84 Fitzroy Street in Charlottetown next Monday, June 28th. I imagine things will start to warm up about 8:30 p.m. when the polls close in the east. All are welcome. We’ll have a television tuned to the CBC on the big screen, and, no doubt, innumerable web devices streaming results all over the place.

From my friend Jon, Director of the Confederation Centre Art Gallery and Museum, comes the following note:

This year the Cultural Human Resource Council of Canada commissioned a survey of the new media field. The idea was to look at patterns in the field from the broadest range of new media workers, from writers, to designers to code geeks. The resulting survey will eventually lead to public policy decision in Ottawa related to the field. The research firms conducted to do the study are EKOS Research and Delvinia Interactive both based in Ontario.

Based on their claims, there are only 81 new media workers in all of Atlantic Canada. When I questioned this number they told me that based on their experience and the replies they received back from their on line survey this was an accurate number. I don’t think it is, based admittedly on my highly inaccurate and subjective personal experience.

In order to shut me up they have agreed to put the survey back on line until July 5 and if we can find any additional new media workers to fill it out by then they would include it in their survey.

Ottawa will likely use the results of this survey to set in place programs and policies that will have an impact on the new media field. If these studies only reflect the reality of what is the conditions in Ontario then again we will have programs put in place the will benefit those in that province. Please take the time and fill it out.

Emphasis is mine. As much as I think studies like this are a folly, it does seem absurd for anyone to conclude that there are only 81 new media workers in Atlantic Canada. Heck, I could probably name you 81 off the top of my head, most of them working within shouting distance of where I type this.

To assist in correcting this inaccuracy, perhaps the new media workers in the readership could fill out the survey. The survey is, like most surveys, somewhat insane. But the cause is just.

Please spread the word to your new media colleagues.

Before Catherine went to New York City in May, I called Aliant, her cell phone provider, to convert her over to the Digital North America plan. Although the plan is $79/month, the prohibitive cost of Canadian cell phone calls when roaming in the U.S. makes it a real deal.

Because Aliant’s customer service agents are on strike, I had to deal with a manager. They took my request, but because they didn’t have access to the actual computer system where the actual change would actually be made, they had to take the details and submit a work order. I was assured that the request would be processed, and even if they were late getting to it, the effective date would be the date of my call.

Just to be sure, I called back the next day to confirm the change had been made. There was, alas, no record of the original work order. So another request was sent in, and again I was assured that the change would be made, and that Catherine would be covered.

On June 9, I received Catherine’s cell phone bill for May. With $299.56 in usage charges for the calls she made and received while in the U.S. Calls that should have been covered under the Digital North America plan at no additional charge.

As a side note, if you’ve ever casually thought about using your Aliant cell phone in the U.S. with a standard plan, here’s some incentive not to: the majority of Catherine’s calls were billed at $2.71 a minute. That means that a 20 minute call home was billed at $54.24.

I called Aliant today, and got the same “we don’t actually do anything here, we just pass along requests” response. The manager took my details and promised that someone would get back to me.

We’ll see what happens.

By the way, I have a deep new respect for the Aliant customer service folks: watching their managers conduct simple operations like “talking and typing at the same time” and “listening to people spell their name” and “knowing what services Aliant offers” with an utter lack of aplomb, you realize that our brothers and sisters on the picket lines truly are skilled professionals.

I’ve had several conversations over the last couple of weeks with people who are planning to “vote strategically” in the federal election. Generally this means they’re going to vote Liberal because they think this will keep a Conservative from being elected, and thus keep Stephen Harper from being Prime Minister. I’m sure there are other variations on this, depending on the riding, but it basically boils down to “voting for someone you don’t like so that someone you don’t like more won’t get elected.”

I wish people wouldn’t do this.

I think of election day as a sort of national opportunity to say “this is who we are.” And I take the show of my hand very, very seriously. Seriously enough that voting for someone who I don’t respect, whose ideas I don’t believe in, or who doesn’t reflect my true feelings, would feel like telling a big, public lie.

I think we should vote with our hearts, not while holding our noses, because I think it’s the right thing to do. I think it’s the bedrock on which the entire representative democracy is based.

I also think not voting for someone just because “they don’t have a chance of winning” is a self-fulfilling prophecy. And it doesn’t make a lot of sense: election day isn’t a lottery or a horse race; there’s no upside for backing a winner.

The amazing thing about our electoral system — and I really do think it’s an awesome system that demands our respect — is that it’s a fluid, unpredictable system made up of millions of parts, the outcome of which, polls and pundits aside, is completely up in the air. Up to us.

When you start trying to “game” the system, telling lies about how you really feel with the hopes that enough people will lie with you, you’re perverting that system without truly understanding the potential results.

And in the end, whether you vote Liberal to keep out the Conservatives, or Conservative to keep out the Liberals, or Green to punish the NDP, your vote is going to be used by someone for purposes you didn’t intend — someone, sometime, is going to say “look, 65% of the electorate in my riding supported my plan to outlaw free thought.”

I think the honest, respectful thing to do on polling day is to go behind the screen and pick the person you think should represent your riding in Parliament. I’d like to think that would be obvious.

Let me just state, for the record, that when you are three and two thirds years old, the Boston Children’s Museum is pretty well about the greatest place on earth.

Oliver and I spent two hours there yesterday. When we got up today, I couldn’t think of anything else that would be as much fun as going back. So Oliver, my mother, and I went back for another three hours today.

Three floors of 100% kid-focused fund. Highlights: dressing up as a bee in the “PlaySpace.” The Arthur exhibit. Playing with boats in the model of the Fort Point Channel. Wearing dresses and poodle skirts in Grandmother’s Attic. Learning to use a wheelchair, and how to pick up balls with a head-mounted scoop in the accessAbility exhibit. And the turtles.

Otherwise in Boston, we found two great playgrounds: there’s one in the North End in the park opposite the Marriott Long Wharf, and another in Boston Common at the end of the Frog Pond. Both are modern, well-maintained, and lots of fun. And both use a spongy mixture of ground-up rubber tires and some magical bouncy material under all the equipment — a material we also saw used in Bilbao — that is so much better than the sand, gravel or cedar chips we use in PEI that we might just as well be using shards of broken glass.

We’re heading north tomorrow. Johnny and Jodi are speeding ahead as an advance party. By Thursday there will be at least nine next of our kin on the Island.

I have always taken considerable pride in our association with The Old Farmer’s Almanac. Not only is the Almanac drenched in considerable history — it’s North America’s oldest continuously published periodical — but the work we do for them is right up our alley: creating simple, useful web-based tools that let you do things like look up weather history and find out when the sun is going to come up.

The sister publication of the Almanac, YANKEE magazine, presents us with similar opportunities: answering challenges like help me plan my vacation, and I need a recipe for Boston Cream Pie.

This spring sees two significant events in our relationship with Yankee Publishing, publisher of both the Almanac and YANKEE.

First, it’s the start of our ninth year working with Yankee: our first job — a small programming job that lives, in much-modified form today, as the travel search (see the 1996 archive) — was launched in the spring of 1999.

Second, we’ve just renewed and strengthened our working relationship, with the signing of a new contract today.

It sometimes seems odd to have our primary client located almost 700 miles away. But it works. Both because the folks at Yankee are smart, creative, and flexible, and also because the nature of publishing has always included working with authors, illustrators and photographers who are far-flung. Why not far-flung web developers too?

So please bear with me while I send thanks to our colleagues on the Yankee web team: Group Publisher, John Pierce; Corporate Director of Production and New Media, Paul Belliveau; Almanac Senior Editor, Mare-Anne Jarvela; YANKEE Internet Editor, Ian Aldrich; Internet Design Coordinator, Lisa Traffie. Special thanks to Steve Muskie, who joined us on the “outside” as a Yankee contractor a couple of years ago, but who was a Yankee employee back in 1996, and brought us “into the fold,” and to Yankee President Jamie Trowbridge for believing in the Internet and its possibilities for Yankee well before most publishers had begun to do so, and with a continuing consistency and commitment that few publishers have been able to match.

And thanks as well to the myriad others at Yankee, from Linda who answers the phones (with what is arguably the best phone voice in North America), to Mike who installed our weather station (and keeps Yankee running otherwise), to all of the writers, art directors, production artists, editors, fact checkers, copy editors, ad salespeople, photographers, circulation staff, mail order sales staff, accountants, clerks and other support staff who always make us feel welcome when we visit, and who have been so uncommonly willing to welcome the web into their day-to-day life.

And, perhaps most importantly, to my brother, and Reinvented’s second employee, Johnny, who, from a standing start, has become an accomplished programmer and designer, and whose work you will see on all of Yankee’s sites.

This is fun.