LSUC Bencher Elections Off to the Races

Nominations for the Law Society of Upper Canada’s 2011 Bencher Elections closed on February 11, 2011. A complete list of candidates can be found here.

Although there was some discussion about having this election entirely paperless, the law society has opted to have both Internet and mail-based voting in place.

We’re already starting to see some heavy campaigning online.

Mitch Kowalski has endorsed Monica Goyal of My Legal Briefcase today in the Financial Post. Of course Mitch is running for bencher himself.

Constance Backhouse and Emir Aly Crowne have an election site up, and Julian Falconer has updated his bencher election site, but many of the other candidates still do not have a dedicated site. Then there are the confusingly undated websites like Allan Rouben’s, apparently a campaign page from a previous election.

For those struggling to get some coverage, The Law Times launched a website today for the 2011 Bencher Elections, where candidates can submit profiles and purchase ad space.

But the move that really caught my eye was this one:

Now I don’t know Mr. Robert Wadden, but the fact that this targeted ad popped up on my LinkedIn profile did make me curious enough to check out his LinkedIn profile, and eventually his website.

There are plenty of well-known names running for bencher this year. Let’s see how social media helps them gain even further notoriety. If existing online personalities continue to assist each other in campaigning, it may prove even more interesting.