For Mayor

Less than two weeks before we choose our next municipal council (just three days before online voting begins), it is time for this column to announce whom it is endorsing. In past election years, we took a more collaborative approach to these choices within the walls of The Times. But this cycle, Corey Engelsdorfer, the publisher of this newspaper, is running for the council seat in Wellington. So, this is a solo effort. All approbations and condemnations may be directed at this columnist.

This week I will review the race for mayor. Next week I will focus on ward races (save for Wellington, dear reader, you are on your own in this ward.)

Kyle Mayne seems a good guy. He comes across as well-meaning and caring about his community. He seems someone I would enjoy whiling away an afternoon swapping stories across the back of my pickup. But aside from a sackful of dish towel aphorisms, he lacks the experience, qualifications, or insight to equip him as mayor of a municipality that spends $70 million a year. In a Hillier candidate meeting, Mayne said he has applied for many jobs at Shire Hall. There can’t be many left.

Terry Shortt and Dianne O’Brien want to turn back the clock. They promise a return to a mystical time in the recent past when buildings were golden and roads weren’t falling apart. Both rely on voters having a short memory.

Terry Shortt is a decent and honourable man who cares about his community. He served on council for 13 years through the first decade and a half of the newly amalgamated County. County governance was a crude and wobbly thing in those days—staff and council members alike were learning on the job and making mistakes.

At the time, Shortt was a big promoter of a scheme to borrow millions of dollars to pave gravel roads across the County, anticipating it would cost less to maintain. The savings accrued, according to the plan, would then be available to invest in other roads. Of course, the savings never materialized. Costs rose significantly. After three years and $11 million of debt, the project was abandoned. But County residents were stuck with the bill.

Shortt also refused to accept the result of a 2010 ballot question that indicated 81 per cent of respondents wanted a smaller council. He found shelter in the fact that voter turnout in that election—as every election since—fell under the 50 per cent threshold necessary to make it binding upon council. Shortt also agitated against Shire Hall’s economic development efforts to promote value-added agricultural sectors in favour of traditional agriculture and industry.

Perhaps it is too limiting to pin Shortt’s 2022 aspirations on his past performance. Still, the candidate has offered little in this campaign to suggest he has a broader insight into the workings of this complex and changing community.

Dianne O’Brien is also a compassionate advocate for Prince Edward County, serving on council from 2006 to 2018. In this campaign, she pointed to challenges in our community, but offered few solutions. Mostly vague platitudes suggesting Shire Hall should do better. Maybe so. But just saying the words doesn’t qualify one to be mayor.

O’Brien’s loudest complaint is aimed at Shire Hall’s “careless and reckless” spending. Yet her criticism doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Under O’Brien’s tenure on council, the municipal property tax levy—the best measure of how Shire Hall is managing your money—rose from $20.1 million to $35.5 million, a growth rate of 4.3 per cent per year. Over the past four years, the tax levy has grown at a 3.3 per cent rate. During a pandemic. While it is unfair to pin a steady and steep increase in the tax levy during her 12 years on council, it is certainly a shaky platform upon which to throw stones at the current government.

Shortt and O’Brien come from an era when the business of government was quaint and fragile. It is professional and well-managed now. Neither has demonstrated they understand the difference—that time has moved on. The challenges are different. The demands are more complex. Shire Hall needs forward thinkers. We can’t afford to go backward.

Having listened to three all-candidate meetings, I am surprised how little Covid comes up in comments and questions. But there can be no denying it has profoundly impacted this community, Shire Hall, and the way we talk to each other.

Steve Ferguson gave us a sense of stability in the most difficult time most of us have ever known. He was always available and accessible—on the radio, in print, and on social media. This column hasn’t always agreed with the choices made over the past four years, but I have always believed Steve Ferguson was making them with the well-being of this community uppermost in his mind.

He has earned the right to finish the job.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca