A Halifax man who plans to run this October for the District 9 seat on Halifax regional council got a big surprise this morning.

When Shawn Cleary went to register the domain names shawncleary.com and shawncleary.ca, he discovered they had been snapped up by someone else this week.

Curious, he searched the registry database whois.com and learned a person using the name Linda Mosher had bought shawncleary.com.

Linda Mosher is the current councillor for District 9, Halifax West Armdale.

The registry also listed a personal email, home phone number, along with the address of Mosher's Fairmount home.

'Why would someone go and do that?'

"I was not happy," Cleary told the CBC. "I laughed a lot because I thought, why would someone go and do that to someone who hasn't even announced their candidacy yet."

Linda Mosher is councillor for Halifax West Armdale. (Paul Palmeter/CBC)

Shortly after CBC posted the story, the publicly available registration information for shawncleary.com was changed to remove Mosher's name and other personal details.

Mosher has not responded to messages and emails from CBC requesting her to clarify whether she in fact bought the domain names.

A screen grab from whois.com on Friday morning showing some of the registration information for shawncleary.com. The information also included Linda Mosher's address and phone number. All personal details were taken down soon after CBC posted its story. (Screen grab from whois.com)

If Mosher is behind the move, Cleary thinks that means she views him as a threat.

"Why would someone buy another person's name online to take their presence away from them," he said.

Veteran councillor

Mosher is a four-term councillor with 16 years in municipal politics under her belt.

Cleary, who is an assistant professor of business administration at Mount Saint Vincent University, says Mosher should be running on her record, which he says includes a failure in leadership.

He says she should have supported opening up discussions about whether to remove the Edward Cornwallis name from city properties. And he says Mosher should have consulted with residents about whether they wanted sidewalk snow clearing on the peninsula. He says the service the last few winters has been poor and taxes have gone up.

Mosher also recently championed making donairs Halifax's official food, which Cleary says is not a priority issue.

'Well, that's kind of politics — it's dirty'

"Certainly a lot of people will look at this and it will either confirm for them their view of who she is, or it'll just be a sort of a 'well, that's kind of politics — it's dirty.' But I certainly haven't bought her names and I wouldn't dare," said Cleary.

Both the ca. and .com domains were registered on Monday. Cleary says he saw Mosher at a public meeting a couple of days later and she made no mention of the domain names.

Cleary says he's glad, in a way, the domain names have been taken. It means his name is now out there.

"Now I've got shawnclearyhalifax.ca, so that's all good." He says he plans to officially launch his campaign on May 21.