#munipoli Matters - ISSUE 49 - Does everyone love The Acclaimed?
Welcome to another exciting edition of #munipoil Matters, where we go all in on covering the often under-reported area of municipal politics and local government.
There may be hundreds of local contests across Ontario for this year’s municipal elections, but on the flip side there are scores of positions for mayor and councillor that went unchallenged.
As a result, many municipal politicians don’t even have to campaign for their job again…because they were the only ones to stand for office for another term.
To be municipally acclaimed…or not?
Acclamation happen when on the final day for candidates to register to run, no one other than the incumbent or one person does so. With no other competitors on the ballot, that person automatically will become the mayor or councillor for that position.
In wards, this would happen if there was only one name registered. For municipalities who have voters rank their choice for councillors to represent the whole town, if there are only the exact number of candidates for the exact number of available positions, all those names would automatically become the new council.
There isn’t an official count of how many acclamations were throughout Ontario’s 444 municipal governments, but suffice it to say there are scores of them. For example in Wellington County, a Centre Wellington ward seat, mayors in Minto, Guelph/Eramosa, Mapleton and Puslinch automatically got another term since they had no challengers.
In the Ottawa valley and other parts of the Ottawa area, there were scores of acclamations. Brockville mayor-elect Matt Wren, a current Councillor, was the only name on the ballot after August 19.
Over in Pelham, each ward is represented by two councillors. With an incumbent in both Wards 1 and 3 not seeking reelection, two newcomers were acclaimed as both wards had only two candidates on the ballot: the challenger and the other incumbent.
In the case of Minto, the mayor and all of those standing for councillor positions are not running for votes as everyone got acclaimed.
Deputy Mayor Dave Turton will become the new mayor, while current Councillor Jean Anderson will become the new deputy mayor. Councillors Judy Dirksen, Ron Elliott and Geoff Gunson retained their seats. Ed Podniewicz and Paul Zimmerman will be new councillors.
You may think these small towns around the rest of Ontario sees more of this, but this also happens in the GTA. Two of Milton’s regional councillors, Colin Best and Rick Malboeuf, were acclaimed. So did Mayor Steve Pellegrini of King Township, who has held the job since 2010. Oakville has Councillor Ray Chisholm, Regional Councillors Cathy Duddeck, Janet Haslett-Theall and Tom Adams acclaimed as well.
This is just a sampling of the municipal councillors who secured another four years in their job without really having to work for it. Does this mean that those who have served before were doing such a good job that nobody thought about running to replace them?
Or perhaps the last two years of pandemic lockdowns and the latest peril of being in public office have changed people’s minds about running to represent you in local government.
Some other Manitoba races heat up
Winnipeg isn’t the only municipality in the province with an open mayor’s race. Earlier this year, Winkler Mayor Martin Harder announced his retirement after serving in the role since 2006.
The race now has two contenders: local businessman and Councillor Henry Siemens, who has served on Council for 16 years, and Karl Krebs, a strong anti-COVID measures and anti-vaccine advocate who was part of the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa earlier this year.
Over in the Rural Municipality of St. Andrew, Mayor Joy Sul is running for a second term despite Councillors voting to remove her as the official spokesperson and chair of council in 2019. Current chair and Councillor Jon Preun is now running in the mayoral election also. Both sides claim the other as the cause of ‘dysfunction’.
But in Brandon, Manitoba’s second largest city, there doesn’t seem to be much interest in serving in the local government. Incumbent Mayor Rick Chrest is not running again and so far, Councillor Jeff Fawcett is the only declared candidate to replace him and four wards have only one nominee.
Candidates have until September 20 to sign up to run.
BC comebacks, second acts and double dips
Politics has been called the art of the possible, but it can also be the art of reinvention.
In Richmond, a new municipal slate called Richmond Rise has formed with former councillor Derek Dang and former BC Liberal MLA and solicitor general Kash Heed as the only two candidates running for Council. Their platform focuses on public safety, housing, senior living and good governance.
Surrey Councillor Jack Hundial is stepping down after one term on Council but he’s not leaving politics entirely, as Hundial is now running for Council in Penticton. Hundial, who retired from the RCMP after 25 years, said that his wife and daughter have been living in the Okanagan for the last year and a half and decided to move there.
Meanwhile, Port Moody Councillor Zoë Royer, who has been a Councillor since 2011, has decided to switch over to running for school board trustee. This career move normally wouldn't turn heads. What may be turning heads is that Royer is also running for City Council in neighbouring Coquitlam at the same time.
Apparently this is totally fine, according to the BC Ministry of Municipal Affairs. You can run for a school board and council position in two different municipalities…and even in the same municipality as both bodies are not considered the same local government. However, one may not run for mayor and councillor in the same municipality.
In Ontario this would probably be considered absolutely bonkers. A candidate has enough to fuss over on manpower and resources over one campaign, let alone two. But with BC having municipal parties that might make it easier for candidates running as part of a team…with the resources behind it.
Where are they now?
Specifically, whatever happened to politicians that haven’t been elected to anything in some time but have resurfaced, or already resurfaced, in another role. There may be many more which I hope to highlight later on, but here’s two for starters.
Remember Dean Del Mastro? He’s the former Conservative MP from Peterborough from 2006 until 2014, when he resigned after being convicted for breaking the Elections Canada Act during the 2008 election.
Del Mastro’s violations were overspending his elections limit and attempting to cover up the violation, which resulted in a month in jail, four months of house arrest, and 18 months of probation.
For those of us who remember, how could you forget the iconic pictures of Del Mastro being handcuffed and taken away?
The sentence included a ban on holding federal office for five years, but Del Mastro isn’t looking at returning to Ottawa. The former Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister Stephen Harper is now running for Deputy Mayor of the Township of Cavan Monaghan.
When asked why he didn’t just run for the Mayor’s job, which was left open by retiring incumbent Scott McFadden, Del Mastro said his current involvement in three businesses in Peterborough and the GTA wouldn’t allow him to dedicate his full attention to the job, but he still wanted say on issues as a member of the township council.
Our second person of interest is Jane Toller. That name may not sound familiar to those who follow Toronto municipal politics as it is her maiden name; she used to go by Jane Pitfield.
Pitfield’s career in Toronto dates back to 1998, when she first got elected to Toronto City Council in a by-election representing East York. In 2000 and 2003, she was elected as Councillor for Don Valley West. Seen as a right leaning conservative voice on Council during the tenure of former Toronto mayor David Miller, she sat on the works, budget, audit and aboriginal affairs committee, co-chairing the latter.
In 2006, Pitfield ran against Miller for mayor on a platform of being tougher on crime and holding off on tax increases…almost a precursor to the 2010 mayoral bid of the late Rob Ford, although Pitfield was a more conventional politician. Despite polls showing her competitive, Miller won with 57% of the vote versus Pitfield’s 32%.
After leaving Council, she went onto other projects including writing a book about her local neighbourhood of Leaside in 2008. In 2010, Pitfield ran for Council again, this time in Ward 29 (Beaches-East York) when the incumbent retired, but lost to newcomer Mary Fragedakis.
From there, the former Toronto councillor went on to manage several businesses, such as the Pontiac Conference Centre in Quebec and became President of Tourism Pontiac in the Regional County Municipality of Pontiac.
In 2017, Toller was elected as Warden of the Pontiac RCM with 47% of the vote and was reelected in 2021 with 52%.
Cover photo courtesy of County of Brant
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