The Race is on

Friday September 12th was a big day at municipal offices around the province and 2pm was the most important hour.  It was then that nominations for the Ontario Municipal Election closed.  It was hard to miss the big Rob/Doug Ford shuffle but what was happening in your neck of the woods?   Have you checked out who is running?
October 27th 2014 is the date of the Ontario Municipal Elections.  We often refer to ‘levels’ of government when discussing Federal, Provincial or Municipal elections.  I would agree with Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi that this creates a hierarchy which places Federal politics at the top.  In reality though, Federal Government, while very important, is the branch which affects your daily life the least.  If the Federal Government and all their services were to disappear today, it would probably take you at least a month to notice, perhaps when your GST rebate didn’t arrive.  If the Provincial Government were to disappear, you may notice in a week or the next time you tried to use your OHIP card.  If your Municipal Government were to disappear, you would notice the first time you turned on a tap or flushed your toilet.  
With all of that, we give our Municipal Electoral Candidates the least amount of support.  Municipal Elections traditionally have the lowest voter turnout.  On October 27th we will be electing town councilors (or reeves or wardens or mayors etc) but perhaps more importantly for those of us working in education, we will be electing our School Board Trustees.  Please do your research and vote wisely.  Please support a campaign if you have time (or money).  Please remind your colleagues for vote on the 27th.  Please make your vote count!    

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