Halifax council candidate Shawn Cleary gets domain names back from Linda Mosher

Shawn Cleary is once again in control of his domain name.

The MSVU professor and candidate for Halifax West Armdale has bought shawncleary.ca and shawncleary.com, after a nearly two-month period during which the domains were under the control of incumbent councillor Linda Mosher.

Cleary saidthe domains became available again on Monday.As soon as he knew they were free, "I hopped online and bought both of them," he said.

In May, Cleary began his campaign for District 9. But when he went to buy the domain names that featured his name, he discovered that both had already been purchased and were registered toMosher, whom he is running against.

• Halifax council candidate says Coun. Linda Mosher took his domain name

Mosher subsequently admitted that she had purchased the sites, writing in a statement that she had received bad information from a "website adviser" and that she would releasethe domain names.

'Denying me a presence on the internet'

Cleary saidhe reached out to Mosher to ask if she could transfer the names to him, or if he could purchase them from her.

Cleary said Mosherresponded by email in June, confirmingthat she no longer owned the domains. But that didn't mean Cleary could buy them instead, the sites then went into what's called a "redemption period," during which only Mosher could access them even though she was no longer the owner.

Cleary said although he's happy to now have the domains under his control,it would have been faster to have them transferred to him.

"I found it very odd that rather than transfer it to us, she put it go into this holding period where no one could access it and again sort ofdenying me a presence on the internet for another month."

An unexpected boost

But Cleary said despite the delays, the situation has been an unexpected boon to his campaign.

"In a weird way, I think it's actually helped my campaign more than it hurt it," he said.

"When I go out canvassing, meeting people and going to community events, often people know my name.

"When I introduce myself they go, 'Oh wait, you're that guy who had their name taken by Linda Mosher.'"

Mosher declined a requestto comment on Tuesday.

• Linda Mosher admits to buyingrival's domain names