ISSUE 2 - Federal election aftermath
Welcome back to the second issue of MUNIPOLE MATTERS. Although this newsletter aims to focus primarily on municipal elections and local government issues, we can’t let the recently concluded 44th Canadian federal election pass us by without a word from me.
As the dust settled and mail in ballots were counted and verified, the final result from the September 20th election was 159 Liberals, 119 Conservatives, 33 BQ, 25 NDP, and 2 Greens. A number of current and former municipal officer holders were either elected or defeated across Canada in their bids to become Members of Parliament.
Burnaby North-Seymour, BC: while District of North Vancouver Jim Hanson garnered a respectable second place finish for the NDP, he was unable to oust Liberal incumbent Terry Beech. Coincidentally, Beech was elected to Nanaimo City Council in 1999 at age 18 before moving to Burnaby to attend Simon Fraser University.
Pitt Meadows-Maple Ridge, BC: Maple Ridge councillor Ahmed Yousef ran for the Liberals but only managed to place third in this riding as it swung back to its traditional status as a Tory-NDP battleground, with Conservative Mark Dalton getting reelected.
Cariboo-Prince George, BC: Liberal candidate Garth Frizzell, a Prince George councillor and former FCM president, was not able to translate that experience into better results for the governing party in this safe blue seat. Tory incumbent Todd Doherty was easily reelected with 51% of the vote.
Calgary Skyview, AB: This is a riding that is now guaranteed to get a cabinet minister in the re-elected Liberal government, as Calgary city councillor George Chahal defeated the Tories’ Jag Sahota in a close fought battle. But Chahal may have landed himself in some hot legal water.
Edmonton Mill Woods, AB: this riding will not be sending outgoing city councillor and Liberal candidate Ben Henderson to Ottawa. Henderson was soundly defeated by Conservative incumbent Tim Uppal, even after the councillor was endorsed by Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson.
Moose Jaw-Lake Centre-Lanigan, SK: a slight correction from my first post, but Conservative candidate Fraser Tolmie is not the current mayor but is now the former mayor of Moose Jaw. Tolmie stepped down prior to the election and successfully retained the seat for the Tories with about 60% of the vote. Local criticism has arisen that Tolmie, who was elected to his second mayoral term in 2020, has now precipitated a $50,000 mayoral by-election.
London West, ON: Liberal Arielle Kayabaga managed to keep this riding red and it marks the first time in many years a sitting city councillor made the successful transition to the House of Commons. London City Council is expected to declare Kayabaga’s Ward 13 vacant in the next council meeting and to decide if they will appoint an interim councillor or hold a by-election to replace her.
Niagara Falls, ON: Former Niagara Falls city councillor Andrea Kaiser ran for this riding a second time but ultimately Tory incumbent Tony Baldinelli was reelected.
Hamilton East-Stoney Creek, ON: this suburban Hamilton riding has traded in one former member of council (Bob Bratina) with another, as city councillor Chad Collins kept it for the Liberals, despite the NDP’s Nick Milanovic making a second run and Jagmeet Singh’s regular visits to the Hammer. In the end, the Conservatives actually ended up in second place. As with Kayabaga, Hamilton City Council will have to declare Collins’ seat vacant before deciding how to replace him.
Kingston and the Islands, ON: while the Tories picked Kingston city councillor Gary Oosterhof as their candidate, he only managed to finish a distant third place behind the NDP’s Vic Sahai as Liberal incumbent Mark Gerretsen, a former mayor, handily won reelection.
Kanata-Carleton, ON: Ottawa councillor Jenna Sudds, from Kanata North ward, was elected as a Liberal replacing outgoing Liberal MP Karen McCrimmon who opted not to run again. Sudds would have to vacate her seat once she is officially declared elected and City Council would decide how to fill the ward seat, or how to delegate responsibilities for the community accordingly.
Trois-Rivières, QC: 556 votes separated the winner, BQ candidate René Villemure, and former Trois-Rivières mayor and Conservative candidate Yves Lévesque, who ran for a second time.
Saint John-Rothesay, NB: Liberal MP Wayne Long was elected for his third term, turning back a challenge from former Saint John mayor and Tory candidate Mel Norton, as he was unable to replicate the transition from mayor to MP that Elsie Wayne once did.
Miramichi-Grand Lake, NB: In a battle of two former provincial cabinet ministers and municipal councillors, Conservative Jake Stewart managed to come out on top over Liberal Lisa Harris.
Since I grew up in the Peel Region, I should add that Liberal Lisa Post, an Orangeville town councillor who ran in Dufferin-Caledon, was defeated by Tory incumbent Kyle Seeback by over 11,000 votes. Post would technically be the only person serving in a city or town council who ran for any political party in Peel.
Also of note is that if Conservative Michael Ras, who mounted a strong challenge to Liberal incumbent Sven Spengemann in Mississauga-Lakeshore, had been elected that would mark the second political couple to hold seats in Ottawa and on Mississauga City Council. Ras’ wife is Ward 2 councillor Karen Ras and her colleague Chris Fonseca, the Ward 3 councillor, is married to Liberal MP Peter Fonseca, who was reelected in Mississauga East-Cooksville.
Alberta municipal candidates confirmed
Besides voting for members of their local municipal councils on October 18, Albertans will be asked to vote on Alberta Senate elections as well as referendum questions about equalization and whether the province should adopt Daylight Savings Time.
One candidate that was not mentioned, but disappeared from the ballot just as quickly as he registered for his candidacy to become the next mayor of Calgary, was former MLA, MP and federal cabinet minister Kent Hehr. Hehr, who served as a Liberal MP for Calgary Centre from 2015 to 2019, filed to run for mayor on September 6 but dropped out before the deadline passed on the 20th.
Hehr became a quadriplegic when he was shot as a bystanding during a 1991 drive-by shooting and cited his spinal condition to him being more vulnerable to COVID-19, although that isn’t stopping Jacob McGregor, who is also wheelchair bound, running for council in Calgary’s Ward 1.
Even if health considerations were not a factor, Hehr was seen to risk “splitting the progressive vote” according to observers, allowing a “right wing” candidate to take the mayor’s chair. As of this writing, Hehr’s mayoral candidate website is still up and the video he put out below clearly planted him on the progressive political spectrum for this race.
With Hehr’s departure, Councillor Jyoti Gondek can breathe a little easier as she has been seen as the progressive standard bearer with Nenshi’s departure, although it’s not certain she can rally the support behind her campaign that Nenshi did in three successful elections. The latest poll showed her and Councillor Jeromy Farkas, seen as the conservative option, as the two clear frontrunners, with Councillor Jeff Davison and others trailing behind.
Unless a third option starts building up momentum in the next three weeks the way Nenshi did in 2010, it looks as though either Farkas or Gondek will become the next mayor leading Alberta’s largest city.
Over in Edmonton there is a more subdued mayoral race to succeed Mayor Iveson, with former federal cabinet minister Amarjeet Sohi looking like the proverbial frontrunner. Sohi released a series of tweets outlining his strategy for downtown revitalization.
Sohi is running not only against former councillors Kim Krushell and Michael Oshry, but also current councillor Mike Nickel, who is apparently trying to tie Sohi to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with some rather simplistic graphic design work.
Endorsements abound
As for Iveson, he’s doing something rather uncommon for an outgoing mayor who's still relatively popular: endorsing specific candidates in council ward races, sometimes over incumbents running for reelection. This has generated some controversy amongst Iveson detractors as well as neutral observers.
On the other hand, Nickel is doing similar types of endorsements, hoping to get candidates elected that share his political leanings. This campaign is Nickel’s third attempt at the mayor’s chair, having mounted unsuccessful bids against then mayor Bill Smith in 1998 and 2001.
Mayor Nenshi has been mum on shilling out endorsements himself, but two time Calgary council candidate and management consultant Chris Harper offered his thoughts on who he would support; Harper supports Gondek for mayor.
It’s not all just about Calgary and Edmonton. Red Deer will have six candidates running for mayor as incumbent Tara Veer has decided not to run again. The same with Lethbridge as incumbent Chris Spearman is not reoffering. Six candidates are looking to succeed Spearman, including a sitting councillor, a former councillor and mayoral candidate, an MMA fighter and a member of the Blood Tribe First Nations reserve.
At the same time, Lethbridge has two plebiscite questions on the ballot: whether to construct a bridge and whether the city should use a ward system to elect city councillors starting in 2025. Most municipalities outside of Calgary and Edmonton, unless they’re a county government or a specialized municipality like Wood Buffalo or Strathcona County, elect councillors from an at-large basis, meaning they represent the entire municipality.
Citizen engagement groups
Focusing on local elections and municipal governance also means putting a spotlight on non-profit organizations focusing on civic engagement and enhancing local democracy. Here’s a brief highlight on some of these local groups around Ontario.
Engage Peel - in the interest of full disclosure, I myself am part of this organization whose current purpose is to provide education on and enhance local democracy in Peel Region, which consists of Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga. We’re on Twitter, Facebook and have a YouTube channel where you can peruse past virtual town hall meetings with various guests discussing civic engagement and local government.
Engage Barrie - the inspiration for a group such as Engage Peel lie somewhere north on Highway 400. Founded in 2019 with the goal of “creating an equitable community, mobilizing and empowering people, and building an engaged local democracy,” to paraphrase, Engage Barrie focuses their attention on Barrie’s local government and recently incorporated as a non-profit organization. They provide services such as tutorials on how to make a deptuation before city council.
ielect Hamilton - While Engage Barrie and Peel are more closely aligned with providing education and better means of participation with local government, sometimes even establishing relationships with existing members of council, ielect Hamilton has a more assertive goal of changing council composition in 2022.
There are videos about councillors who voted against the provincially funded LRT, city hall scandals, a timeline of how long each councillor has been in office and focus on very specific local issues that ielect says that Hamilton City Council has either dithered on or delayed in doing the right thing. ielect is an acronym standing for Infrastructure, Economy, Leadership, Environment, Community and Transportation.
Political parties at the municipal level are not common, and perhaps illegal under the elections act, but there’s nothing to stop an organization from presenting credible slates of candidates with shared common goals and values.
Horizon Ottawa - Hamilton isn’t the only city where there is a group with a critical eye on their local government. In the capital city of Canada, Horizon Ottawa describes themselves as a “progressive, municipal-focused grassroots organization dedicated to creating a city that genuinely works for everyone.”
They have regular press releases on various issues such as independent investigations into LRT contracts, the police budget and accusations that a councillor who chaired the planning board was in a conflict of interest because of her relationship with a planning consultant. That councillor has since stepped down from Ottawa’s planning committee.
Council Accountability Group (CAG) of Richmond Hill - I’ll just let them introduce themselves.
What I noticed is their co-founders are three women, which is quite impressive considering one of them is a former CTV news journalist and the other is a retired public servant in the Ontario government, so these aren’t slouches when it comes to researching the issues surrounding this fast growing municipality in York Region.
They are not shy about focusing on ‘controversial issues’ as they have an entire section on their website dedicated to such matters. My only criticism is that I think their website needs some work as it is visually challenging for my eyes.
Sparks fly in Richmond Hill as mayor steps down
Speaking of Richmond Hill, they are looking for a new mayor, either through a by-election or an appointment by city council. Mayor Dave Barrow had been on medical leave since February and on September 15 submitted his resignation from council and the mayor’s chair he’s held since 2006.
If you can get through this entire three hour portion of the meeting, things got so contentious that the deputy mayor had to tell one of his colleagues, who had been one of the most vocal during the proceedings, to shut up, for which he later apologized for. The outburst is near the very end of this video.
The resignation of the mayor may not have been such a problem, if the vacancy didn’t leave an even number of members. Because the deputy mayor is now the acting mayor, council is deadlocked 4 to 4 as there are now only eight council members.
CAG has outlined various options Richmond Hill councillors can take during a special council meeting on September 29, with councillors saying that the by-election option was the most favoured by residents they’ve connected with:
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