ISSUE 17 - Richmond Hill has a new mayor
Welcome to another issue of #munipoli Matters, where we discuss all about municipal elections and the often unreported area of local government across Canada and beyond.
I have stuff about a new mayor, a potential future mayor and a former mayor’s fall from political grace.
Enjoy!
Richmond Hill has elected a new mayor
After a campaign that lacked almost any in-person interaction because of the spike in the Omicron variant (not to mention a massive snowstorm), the rare mayoral by-election in Richmond Hill concluded after a week of online and in-person voting which ended on January 24, 2022.
Former Ward 4 Councillor David West topped the polls with 33.55% of the vote, followed by Ward 6 Councillor Godwin Chan with 26%. West will now serve out the remainder of the term ending on November 14, 2022. Below are the certified results released by the city.
Regional councillors Carmine Perrelli and Joe DiPaola, the latter of whom served as Acting Mayor since last February, trailed in third and fourth place. Overall voter turnout for the by-election came in at 32%, with 93% of the votes cast online. The Toronto Star said that turnout actually increased by 5% from the 2018 regularly scheduled municipal election.
This by-election was triggered after council voted to have one over an appointment to replace DiPaola, after longtime former mayor Dave Barrow resigned for medical reasons back in September. West is widely seen as more of a centrist candidate as opposed to Perrelli and DiPaola, the latter of whom once ran for the federal Conservatives.
West pledged to move Richmond Hill in a more “positive direction”, which apparently resonated with enough voters to get him the win. Perrelli had disrupted council meetings at various times last year, engaging in several shouting matches with DiPaola during council and being reprimanded by the Integrity Commissioner several times.
The results Chan got were somewhat surprising, but it gives an indication that a majority of Richmond Hill voters preferred someone governing with a more conciliatory approach. While the Ward 6 incumbent did not win the mayor’s chair, he may have built up a base of support for a future run for York Regional Council, where Chan currently serves as an acting regional councillor.
Looking at the 2018 results, DiPaola and Perrelli both got around 11,000 votes as regional councillors. Chan’s 10,167 votes isn’t that far behind, if that support holds in a hypothetical October 2022 run for regional council. Richmond Hill elects two regional councillors where candidates run city-wide, the winners are the top two vote getters on the list of those who ran.
Ironically though, Richmond Hill’s city council is still ‘technically’ deadlocked at 4-4, as West had to vacate his Ward 4 seat to take the mayor’s chair. It’s most likely the council will appoint someone to serve the remainder of the term until November 14.
A fresh face enters the mayoral race in Hamilton
Speaking of mayoral elections, the City of Hamilton has at least one fresh face to run for mayor that some frustrated residents have been clamouring for: Keanin Loomis, the current CEO of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce.
“I came to relish being the Voice of Business in our community and being part of an outstanding provincial and national chamber network; this is truly a noble profession comprised of the finest leaders of each community across Ontario and Canada. I owe so much to my many colleagues who helped me gain that understanding so that I may find the right path for my organization,” he said in his statement.
Loomis, 47, has been in his current role for nine years. He is also on the Board of the Hamilton-Oshawa Port Authority and had previous roles as a lawyer in Washington DC and CEO of Hamilton’s Regional Innovation Centre. Speculation is that current Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger, who served from 2006-2010, then again since 2014 and before that was a city councillor, may not run again now that one of his signature files, the Hamilton LRT, has been achieved.
The mayor could still seek a third term, but former mayor Bob Bratina, the man who defeated Eisenberger in 2010, is making noise about running again; Bratina announced recently a new show he is starting so he’s keeping his name relevant in Hamilton.
A former mayor whose major issue that he’s spoken up on the past year was to take away the LRT funding doesn’t sound appealing when it comes to looking for a fresh voice. Loomis could be that voice, but in recent interviews he’s described himself as a ‘radical moderate’, when many are saying real, substantive and progressive change is needed at city hall.
Far-right Toronto mayoral candidate breached election finance laws
We’re still not sure if the mayor of Canada’s biggest city, John Tory, is planning to run again. But if Tory goes for the mayor’s chair one more time, he has at least one less potential challenger to worry about, if she was even a serious contender at all.
Faith Goldy, a former Rebel Media personality and far-right provocateur, was found by an auditor to have violated municipal election finance laws in several areas ranging from failure to report over $86,000 in campaign expenses, $56,000 worth of donations from non-Ontario residents, who legally aren’t allowed to contribute to a municipal campaign, failing to report her financials after the December 2018 deadline without requesting an extension, appealing to ineligible donors and exceeding the maximum amount a candidate can donate to their own campaign.
Literally everything you can do wrong as a candidate running for local office.
Goldy’s views are considered extremely right wing, even by normal conservative standards. She was previously a contributor for Rebel Media, a media organization infamous for it’s own brush with right wing politics. But even Rebel couldn’t stomach keeping her, as she was fired in 2017 after appearing on a neo-Nazi podcast and at the infamous Charlottesville, Virginia white supremacist rally. Goldy has also been banned on Facebook, Patreon, Paypal…even Airbnb.
The Toronto audit was triggered by a complaint from Evan Balgord, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network and a former staffer under Tory. In 2018, Goldy finished a distant third behind the incumbent mayor and Toronto’s former Chief Planner Jennifer Keesmaat.
Under the Ontario Municipal Election Act, penalties for such violations include fines of up to $25,000 per offence, a possible prohibition on seeking office in the following two civic elections and, for intentional “corruption”, up to six months in jail.
While that distant third Goldy placed was only around 25,000 votes compared to several hundred thousands Tory got, the fact that someone with her controversial history of pandering and boosting far-right, white nationalist views came in third place in a mayoral race in one of the most diverse cities in Canada is concerning.
In nearby Mississauga, a man who frequently promoted anti-Muslim racism came in second to Mayor Bonnie Crombie’s reelection bid in 2018. That same man went on to getting charged with hate crimes and getting sued for such by Paramount CEO Mohammad Fakih, who was a frequent target of the man’s racist rhetoric.
This person was last seen attempting to flee to the United States to avoid serving a jail sentence in Alberta.
I’m all for allowing people of all background with diverse viewpoints to run for office, no matter which order of government it is at, but if you’re doing it just to push radical, racist, and completely disgusting ideas (whether you’re a believer or just doing it for shameless self promotion), you should seek out more constructive life endeavours.
Simcoe-area township declines online voting option…for now
While a number of towns and cities are exploring new methods of voting in this current pandemic reality that we all live in, one town in Simcoe County has decided to stick with the familiar method people have been voting for decades.
The council of Oro-Medonte, a town of around 21,000, has voted against the option of online voting and reverting to paper ballots but only for the 2022 election. What is ironic is that the council voted online to ban online…because the council was meeting virtually via Zoom.
“I am recommending this because it is the most accessible. It requires less resources to run ... It requires less tabulators as there is a reported shortage of tabulators in the system at this time,” Township clerk Yvonne Aubichon said, who recommended in-person, internet and telephone voting — as well as paper ballots upon request — be allowed. However, a majority of the council disagreed.
“I do not support the internet voting experience. To me, the most important thing is the validation of the voter and making sure that the vote corresponds with the person as opposed to a number that is sent out in the mail for access,” said Councillor Tammy DeSousa, adding that in 2018 the town’s online voting system crashed and results had to be delayed to allow for additional voting.
Not all residents are happy with what their town councillors did.
“Oro-Medonte Township Council appears to be trying to suppress the excellent voter turnout achieved in 2018, in particular the votes of those who are seniors, immune compromised, disabled, out of the country, away for school, and/or who only live here seasonally, and with no care for the lives of its own residents. Is this democracy?”, asked resident Irene Lawrenson in this letter to the editor.
Former Ajax mayor no longer running for the NDP
This story is a few weeks old, but it deserves some highlighting as it somewhat speaks to the competency of a woman who aspires to be Ontario’s next premier.
A few weeks ago the NDP looked as though they landed a star candidate when they recruited former Ajax mayor Steve Parish to run for them in the June provincial election. Parish was Ajax mayor from 1995-2018 and was going to contest the riding of the same name and geographical boundaries.
With current Ajax Tory MPP and cabinet minister Rod Phillips leaving politics, this riding east of Toronto in the GTA suburbs looked to be competitive for an Official Opposition struggling to gain traction to oust Doug Ford’s PC government.
Unfortunately for the Ontario NDP, Parish is no longer the candidate. In 2007, the mayor defended and celebrated the naming of a street after a former German (read, Nazi) naval commander during World War II, Hans Langsdorff. Parish defended the naming even after leaving office, showing up in a 2020 council meeting debating the matter. The local council ended up reversing the naming.
The current Ontario NDP can sometimes be as doggedly persistent akin to some Tory politicians, as Leader Andrea Horwath continued to stand behind Parish’s candidacy after these revelations. I didn't expect her to give two hoots about what Ajax Liberal candidate Amber Bowen had to say, but when a neighbouring NDP riding president publicly quits on you, you might want to listen up.
Horwath finally relented and announced that Parish is no longer the candidate, saying “Mr. Parish has not denounced the decision to have a street named after a high-ranking German officer in the Second World War. Perhaps most importantly he has not demonstrated that he understands why that is harmful.”
I think this incident demonstrated that while Horwath has managed to maintain rather incredible caucus solidarity during the past four years (the 40 MPPs she got elected with are all still in caucus with her), the vetting process for candidates under her leadership seems to still have some work to do, even after Horwath’s 12 years at the helm of this party.
She did, however, easily pass a leadership review with 85% support during a virtual policy convention this past weekend.
Taking Parish out before the campaign went into full swing does a lot to stem the damage from this rather self inflicted wound.
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