By Staff
February 5th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
ECoB has announced a Municipal Election Candidate Workshop that will be held at Tansley Woods on Thursday February 22nd – starting at 7 pm
ECoB – Engaged Citizens of Burlington – has done a lot of the early heavy lifting to raise public interest in what city council is doing. A small group – the real change makers always start out as small groups in church basements, they are still open to accepting volunteers.
There are a number of people, three we believe, that will be looking to oust Ward 3 Councillor John Taylor from his 20 year plus perch around the horseshoe.
Councillor John Taylor
All three are male; all are keeping their powder dry for the moment. All three are commendable. In the past the ward has produced some pretty pathetic candidates.
The three men are each worth serious consideration.
Pity is that the talent they offer is all in the one ward.
There is a potential candidate in ward 1 – she is going to need some coaxing – she too would bring a new look to that ward.
Councillor Marianne Meed Ward
Ward 2 has at least two strong potentials – they are waiting until the current Councillor Marianne Meed Ward makes it official and announces that she will be running for Mayor.
Wards 4 and 5 could well be headed for acclamation. Dennison will be very hard to beat, he is part of the geography. Ward 5 produced the current Mayor and the announced candidate for Mayor, Mike Wallace. No new talent has surfaced – yet. That well seems to have gone dry.
Councillor Blair Lancaster
Ward 6 has a very strong potential candidate who has served the city very well in the past. In private conversations she has expressed interest.
Ward 4 – Jack Dennison is part of the geography.
Councillor Paul Sharman
This could turn out to be a very interesting municipal election.
And of course there is the election of school board trustees – there is just one assured of a return to the School Board. Amy Collard has earned the right to be acclaimed again.
Well said
Just to let you know there is at least one other group that I know of who are aligned with your/ecobs thinking who are looking to s
Meet with candidates and who also want to broaden the cross city awareness and involvement. I think strategically we need four people which means going after the weakest in order to neutralize the others. In the long term we can then to turn a critical eye on the planning department itself
All I would say is people need to avoid multiple candidates going up against an incumbent.
If MMW decides to run for Mayor, we do not need a fourth, in my opinion.
Whether you like it or not, vote splitting favors the incumbent, who is already favored.
To avoid this, candidates may choose another Ward, if possible.
Whatever, this needs to be a strategic consideration. Perhaps ECoB can factor this into their workshop thinking and presentations.
Individuals need to do this too.
ECoB should consider conducting polling of voters’ intentions prior to the municipal election. If, come Labour Day, a candidate is not doing well and polling less than 15%, he or she should “take the moral high ground”, drop out of the race, and throw their support to a non-incumbent. This is the best way to ensure change. Candidates who drop out should then be encouraged to participate in various Committees of Council in order to influence the change agenda and raise their profile for a subsequent bid in 2022.
A lot of focus is upon the Mayoralty race, but realistically, majority control of Council should remain the priority. While a change in the Mayor’s office would be amazing, voters could end up electing the Tooth Fairy and in the final analysis that person still only have one vote. Where change is desperately needed is in Wards 1, 3, 4 and 6.
Stephen, another excellent analysis although I’m a bit perplexed why you would be OK with Sharman; I used to think he was a breath of fresh air when he was first elected but now he is as stale as the other members of council. In my view, a clean sweep is needed.
I’m most concerned about the ward in which I live–in theory, represented by Jack Dennison. In practice, Jack represents no-one but himself. My personal view is that he is too close to the development industry to objectively analyze development, particularly in the downtown core. During the New Street Fiasco, he represented ONLY the cycling lobby which ignoring his constituents, all of which were inconvenienced by this travesty. Further, his refusal to consider a code of conduct is almost legendary. Definitely past his best-before-date.