The City of Medicine Hat Quietly Removed My Campaign Website Link - Then They Removed ALL of the Candidate Links

allardkg
Sep 3
5 min read

Yesterday the Candidate List on the City of Medicine Hat website showed the link to my campaign website.

Today it is GONE!

It had been there since July 10, after I submitted the information to the Chief Electoral Officer Andres Cardona Arias who was hired last December for this election.

11:30am I stopped by City Hall today to see if I could find out why it disappeared. The lovely person at the desk had no idea why my name was removed, she had no answers for me. The best I could do was get an appointment to speak with the Chief Electoral Officer tomorrow afternoon.

2:09pm the City posts this on their website - Medicine Hat - As part of our commitment to maintaining neutrality and transparency during the municipal election period, the City has made the decision to remove links to candidates’ personal websites and social media feeds from the official municipal website.

This decision was guided by two key considerations:

Avoiding Perceived Endorsement
While the City supports open access to election information, linking directly to candidates’ personal platforms may inadvertently suggest endorsement of the views or content shared on those pages. To ensure impartiality, the City is limiting its role to providing verified candidate names and contact information as submitted during the nomination process.
Jurisdictional Best Practices
A brief scan of municipal practices across Alberta revealed that most municipalities do not provide direct links to candidate websites or social media accounts.

The City thanks residents and candidates for their understanding as we strive to uphold the principles of fairness and neutrality in the administration of the municipal election.

For more information about the election process, key dates, and voting details, please visit our Election Information Page.

Why was I the only council candidate affected at first? Why were candidates not contacted about this?

Itwas the Chief Electoral Officer who reached out to me and offered this service back in March after I filed my paperwork - I was the first person to file for Council. They had 6 months to think about this and do a jurisdictional scan but now all of a sudden it is a problem?

This is Bullshit

Wait until you see the reason for this! I thought I was being paranoid but sadly it turns out that I was not - keep reading!

Here's How it Happened

March 2 2025 Mr Arias emailed me and said "Do you have a website or email we could direct people to for campaign info? We offer this to every candidate." I did not have one set up yet, I said I would let him know.

July 2 2025 I sent an email to the City Clerk's office saying - Please let me know where people can find the links to campaign websites, etc.

I received no reply.

July 8 2025 Mr Arias contacted all candidates at that time and said "I’m writing to inform you of an exciting opportunity that will become available on Tuesday, September 23rd of this year.

Candidates who submit a link to their campaign website and/or social media profiles by the deadline—September 22nd at 11:55 p.m.—and do not withdraw their candidacy on September 23rd will have their submitted links posted on the City’s Election website. All links will be published simultaneously, regardless of when they were submitted, to ensure fairness among all candidates.

Please send your campaign website and social media links directly to me.

I reminded him of the promise he had made to me in March.

July 9 2025 Mr Arias send this e-mail out to all of the registered candiadtes at that time.

Good morning Candidates,

I hope you're doing well. Yesterday, I sent an email outlining a deadline for submitting campaign website links, stating that all links would be posted together on September 23rd.

Shortly after, I was reminded of a commitment I made in March to publish links to candidates’ campaign websites as they are submitted. I apologize for forgetting this earlier commitment and for any confusion caused.

In light of this, all candidates are now welcome to submit links to their campaign websites and social media pages. These will be posted on the City’s Election website in the order they are received.

This information will also be added to the Candidate Information Package to ensure future candidates are aware of the opportunity.

Thank you for your understanding, and my apologies again for the confusion.

July 10 2025 Mr Arias sent this to me "I am writing to let you know that we have posted a link to your campaign website. You may find it here: Candidate List - City of Medicine Hat."

TODAY

Sept 3 2025 All of a sudden this is a problem.

3:27 pm I receive this message from the Chief Electoral Officer

Ms. A.,

I understand you stopped by earlier to share your concerns about your campaign links being removed from the City of Medicine Hat’s website. My apologies for not offering a formal explanation prior to the change.

Late yesterday, we received a complaint from a community member who expressed concern that by linking to your online content, the City is implying an endorsement of your viewpoints. As this was late in the day and there was not ample time to adequately examine the issue, a decision was made to remove the link as a precautionary measure while the matter was further explored.

Today, staff conducted a jurisdictional review and verified that most municipalities do not link to bios, websites, social media feeds, etc., suggesting that best practice is limited to listing the full name of each candidate and the date they submitted their nomination paperwork. As such, all links to candidate sites have been removed and this will be the standard practice going forward.

The City posted an announcement today related to this shift. You can read the full announcement here, which provides further rationale for the decision. https://www.medicinehat.ca/en/news/announcement-update-to-municipal-election-candidate-listings.aspx

I acknowledge that our shift in approach has likely caused some confusion. We will be sending a note to all candidates advising them of this decision and updating the online Mayor and Councillor Information Package to reflect the change.

Thank you in advance for your understanding. I presume our meeting tomorrow is no longer required and have cancelled it from my calendar.

I told him the meeting is NOT cancelled, that I will see him tomorrow at 1:30pm.

I know that City Hall was watching me during the last election, they even gave me my own category!

This comes not even 3 weeks after my social media was suspended; it had never happened before. I did all the things and I was back online 3 days later only to be suspended a few hours later. It took another 3 days to get back into my social media account. I suspected that I was targeted but did not want to thnk that way.

Now I KNOW I am being targeted.