Comment
It’s time
It is very near the speak-now-or-forever-hold- your-peace moment in local politics. In just a little over two weeks, the window to step up and challenge for a seat around the council table will close. Council needs fresh new voices. It needs talented folks to decide that the cash-burning trajectory of local government can change. That it must change.
Unfettered municipal spending and tax increases have altered this community. It has made life for those on the margins unbearably expensive—pushing many away—while challenging others to make choices they shouldn’t have to make in a proud and supportive community.
You can see it on your own street or road. Neighbours who have been displaced by wealthier folks from the city (many of them part-time)—folks who can endure soaring tax rates. Unrelenting water rate increases.
Prince Edward County needs folks who can help close the wound. With the skills to separate the wheat from the chaff while navigating mounds of reports and studies. They must possess the strength to do the hard work, and bring the self-assurance to endure scrutiny.
Fourteen seats are up for grabs around the horseshoe-shaped table at Shire Hall. As of Tuesday morning, three folks are vying for the mayor’s job. In the County’s nine wards, seven incumbents have signed up to run for re-election (though two are running for Ameliasburgh’s three seats).
Incumbents enjoy a huge advantage—as much as an 80 per cent edge against the field, according to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario. That fact alone may discourage participation by some.
It ought not.
Why? Change is in the air. Past councils were encouraged to dream that a wave of population growth would pay for their sins and ambitions. They spent money they didn’t have (and no business spending) preparing for the gold rush. Fifty million dollars alone was spent on waterworks expansion in Wellington that wasn’t needed. A mistake made worse when Shire Hall made a deal with the developer. That deal condemned the village to zero new homes until the developer decides to do so.
Council needs basic business skills.
It must also get smaller. The County is a single-tier municipality. As such, it manages many more files than a comparable rural community in Ontario. Perhaps counterintuitively, governing this place is made much more difficult with 14 independent decision makers, lacking any party or ideological cohesion.
Debates take too long, sapping the attention span and endurance of council members. Consensus on any subject can take hours. Big issues get lost in the sheer volume of opinions.
The question of council size will be on the ballot on October 26. If the result is similar to the last time the question was asked (2010), the next council will have to set to work almost immediately to enact this change.
To do this will almost certainly require fresh faces—folks willing to sit for a term with a single-minded focus on reducing its numbers. To make future councils workable.
It may be the County’s last shot to remain independent— separate from a regional Quinte government. Across Ontario, the Ford government is wielding a heavy hand in reshaping local governance. Awarding Strong Mayor Powers was an insult. The prospect of subsuming Shire Hall under a Quinte regional government is unacceptable.
Will it happen? Is it likely? I have no way of knowing. But we can’t continue to stumble along, buffeted by indecision, overspending and false dreams. It makes the County a target.
Finally, there is the us-and-them problem. County council—surely like many other councils—tends to coagulate into a club mentality. Once inside, council members sometimes only see the challenges of managing the place—with few revenue sources and too many structural barriers. They see how difficult the balancing act is. Soon you come to hear outside voices as uninformed, unhelpful and eventually something to be ignored.
It’s a problem that is only fixed by fresh faces. Fresh voices.
With $100 and 25 resident signatures, there is still time to file your nomination documents for a council seat. But you need to do so before August 26 at 2 p.m.
Consider the role you can play in shaping the trajectory of our community.
For any seats where there is currently no candidate registered other than the sitting one(s), I would be happy to donate $100 to the FIRST non-sitting candidate to register in that seat, before the deadline. I will also submit a signature supporting the registration.
The Times knows how to contact me if anyone wishes to take me up on this.
$100 should NOT be a barrier to anyone who wishes to run, in my opinion.
I am making this offer in good faith to encourage candidates to register. I reserve the right to withdraw the offer if there is an attempt to claim the donation that is NOT in good faith. I hope that does not happen.
What happens if no one comes forward to be a Councillor/Mayor?
The election procedures, which outline what the Municipal Elections Act mandates, is as follows:
If, at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, August 24, 2026 (the date I as Municipal Clerk/Returning Officer) have to certify the nominations), the number of certified nominations filed for an office is less than the number of persons to be elected to the office, additional nominations may be filed between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 26, 2026. The Clerk shall post a “Notice of Additional Nominations”, Form EL17(B), advising that additional Nomination Papers may be filed for that office during the specified time. If, at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, additional Nomination Papers have been filed, the procedure to certify or reject Nomination Papers shall be followed. If between 9:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, there are more than a sufficient number of certified Nominations to fill the office(s), an election shall be conducted with the names of the persons who have filed certified Nomination Papers.
Equivalent to Number of Offices (Section 35(2) and 37(2))
If, at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday, August 26, 2026 there is a sufficient number of certified Nomination Papers filed to fill the office(s), the Clerk shall post a “Declaration of Acclamation to Office – Additional Nominations”, Form EL21. If the number of candidates certified is insufficient to form a quorum of the municipal council, the relevant part of the election is void and a by-election shall be held under section 65 of the Municipal Elections Act.
The Clerk has advised [May 12, 2026] that there have been acclamations (where you win automatically because no one ran against you) but not an insufficient number of candidates whereby the nomination period had to be extended or, after an extension, and there still are no candidates, a by-election has to be held in the future.
Would appear there will be little change in Council.
We can make a change.
Under Sections 52 and 54 of the Ontario Municipal Elections Act, the law explicitly accounts for voters who wish to use their ballot to make a statement or vote selectively. Here is exactly how each method works at the polling station:
Decline your ballot: When the election official hands you your ballot, you immediately return it to them and state, “I decline my ballot.” This is a formal, public process. The official will mark it as “Declined” on the back. It never goes in the tabulator/box, and it is explicitly counted and published in the official final results as a declined ballot.
Under vote: You can choose to vote for only one candidate when you are allowed to choose two, or you can leave a specific office (like Mayor) completely blank while filling out the rest. The tabulator will still count the votes you did cast, and leaving sections blank is completely acceptable.
Spoil your ballot: If you make a mistake, change your mind, or purposely deface the ballot before putting it in the box, you can return it to the election official. They will mark it as “Spoiled” or “Cancelled” and issue you a fresh, clean ballot so you can start over.
Reject your ballot: If you mark a ballot for too many candidates (an overvote), mark it with identifying information, or leave it completely blank and drop it directly into the ballot box/tabulator, the machine or Clerk will “Reject” the ballot from the final tally. Like declined ballots, rejected ballots are tracked and published in the final election summary.