The Municipal Election Blues

The media – including here in Canada – is full of stories about the looming November Congressional midterm elections in the US. Interesting stuff, but my personal focus is on the now-underway municipal election in London, On. Voting Day is October 26, but Canada believes that nothing should be difficult, so advance polls opened this week. I guess someone thinks that if we had only one day to vote turnout would be even less than the usual 25% or so we typically see in these elections.

A couple of things have happened that may have some impact on the final tally for mayor. First, the Freeps ran a story with the title:

Analysis: Does London need a leader who leans into strong mayor powers?

With the subtitle:

Susan Stevenson says she will use strong mayor powers to replace London’s top bureaucrat. Is that a good idea?

For those who don’t know, the province of Ontario some years back allowed cities to choose to have a ‘strong mayor’ government, which gave the mayor certain unilateral powers, including the ability to essentially impose a budget, and – apparently – to replace the city’s top hired administrator.

That the Freeps would be against Stevenson doing that were she elected is hardly a surprise. The Freeps’ position against anything Stevenson does or says has been apparent since she joined Council four years ago. Nor is it a surprise that the Freeps found two academics at UWO to say they thought it was a bad idea. Stevenson will get very few votes from the UWO Intelligentsia. They did not even mention the (obviously insane) idea that a new mayor who wants to change things might find it highly useful to have a sympatico head administrator by their side.

Her statement did not surprise me, given what I have heard her say about how the Council currently operates, and what I have heard elsewhere about the power city bureaucrats have in my city.

Had I been a Stevenson campaign advisor (fat chance) I might have tried to persuade her to leave that plan in her back pocket during the campaign. She has surely made an enemy of the city’s bureaucrats with that statement, and like it or not, those folks have lots of others in the city beholden to them. They will now surely do whatever they can to influence others not to vote for Stevenson, and they may be able to do a lot.

On the other hand, it’s likely the bureaucrats saw her as the enemy as soon as she announced her candidacy, and were already doing what they could to defeat her. Still, no sense in lighting a fire under your opposition.

And if I set aside my hope that she wins, I do admire Stevenson’s honesty. Telling folks what they will truly be getting if you are mayor is an honourable way to campaign. I will vote for her for sure.

In related news, the Freeps earlier ran two stories noting that incumbent mayor Josh Morgan had won the endorsement of the local labour council and the London District Building and Construction Trades Council. Those are actually two different groups, and I have to say neither endorsement goes any way towards changing my mind about my mayoral vote.

I get that those groups are pleased that the city’s construction and infrastructure policies are keeping their people employed and busy, but I regard the impact of those policies on London to be almost entirely negative.

I still expect the electoral outcomes to be other than what I would like to see, but I also continue to hope I am wrong. It’s all I can do, other than vote on October 26.