Who Will Run?
Posted by Wendy King on 06/26/2010
By Stephen Vance, Meaford Independant -
The room was packed, but it was light on Meaford content.
More than 50 people from across the county showed up for the Candidate Workshop held at Meaford Hall on Thursday June 17, but less than a dozen of those who attended were from the Municipality of Meaford.
The goal of the workshop was to cover some of the basics in municipal governance, electoral process and procedure, and to help explain and define the role of elected members of council.
Representatives from the provincial Ministry of Municipal Affairs walked participants through an extensive presentation of information that would be of value to anyone considering throwing their name into the ring for the upcoming municipal election which will be held on October 25.
Five of the current seven members of council were in attendance with only Deputy Mayor Michael Traynor and Councillor Cynthia Lemon absent. Traynor has said publicly in recent months that he will not seek re-election.
Prior to the information session, there had only been one official candidate in Meaford, that being Harley Greenfield who filed his paperwork with the clerk several weeks ago.
But Councillor Lynda Stephens told The Independent that she had decided to make a bid for re-election and had filed her paperwork that day.
The other three current council members in attendance are quite likely to all be on the ballot seeking election to the Mayor’s post though none has officially announced as of today.
Councillor Jim McPherson has indicated several times in recent months that he will make a bid for the Mayoral seat, and Councillor Gerald Shortt said back in January that if he runs this year, he will run for Mayor.
Mayor Francis Richardson declined once again to confirm to The Independent whether or not he will seek re-election, though he did say that he is getting closer to making an announcement.
I’ve been trying to figure out when will be an appropriate time,” said Richardson, “But it will be done within the next month.”
With little more than four months until election day, the Municipality of Meaford has just two declared candidates for the seven available seats, and it is expected that most who are planning on running will announce early in the summer months in order to take advantage of prime weather, and a multitude of public events for campaigning.
No candidate can collect campaign donations, or spend any money on their campaign until they have filed their paperwork with the clerk at the municipal office.
Candidates can file their paperwork as late as 2 pm on September 10.
www.themeafordindependent.ca
Posted by
Wendy King
on 06/26/2010. Filed under
Meaford.
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