The date for municipal elections in Ontario, October 25, is rapidly approaching, and while all the early excitement is focused on the Toronto race, the township and town elections in Dufferin County are very important.

The Councils we elect will hold office until the end of 2014. During this timeframe critical decisions will be made on development, taxes, infrastructure, and our relationship with the Ontario Government. It is clear that there will be increasing pressure on our way of life, some positive and some negative. While township and town governments cannot control all of these critical issues, they are our first line of defense, and they represent the level of government over which we, as individual citizens, exercise the greatest control and impact.

In Mulmur we are at a critical juncture. This election will give all voters the opportunity to send a clear message regarding expectations for the next four years and beyond. We will face pressure to add population as Ontario implements the “Places to Grow” Act. This will require a strong focus on planning, deciding where and how much population and industry we should add. Additionally, our Council will need to continue responding to the proposals to build large wind turbines in the Township. The plans of the Highland Companies to build a large limestone mine on the 8000-plus acres they have acquired in Melancthon and Mulmur will require significant attention and an ongoing response.

And while these development issues will be critical elements of the Council agenda, so will the day-to-day issues of managing a $4.5 to $6.5 million annual expenditure, and on whether taxes need to be increased, ensuring safe and well maintained roads, meeting the recreational needs of citizens, ensuring that mechanisms exist to encourage and enhance citizen input and participation in decision making, and many others.

Life in Mulmur will inevitably change over the next four years. We need to ensure that during the election process, we as citizens provide input to our candidates, and that we have a full understanding of where each candidate stands on all of the key issues.

MC(2), as required in its by-laws, will support no individual candidates in the upcoming election. Our role is to encourage an active election process, and to work towards wide participation by both candidates and citizens. With this in mind, we are planning two key events that will assist in the exchange of information, ideas, and points of view between citizens and candidates.

First, we are encouraging interested citizens to become candidates, and it is our hope and objective to have every Council position contested in the election, with no winners by acclimation. A broad choice regarding our future leaders is key to getting a full airing of the issues and a vibrant election process.

Second, we plan to provide forums for citizens to interact with candidates. We are going to hold two meetings to encourage a full exchange between citizens and candidates. The first meeting will take place at the Mulmur Township offices this Saturday, March 27. This meeting will be structured to inform potential candidates on the job of township councilor, the time requirements, compensation, as well as a summary of the election process. The rest of the meeting will aim to take citizen input on what issues they see as important to be addressed during the election campaign. We do not plan to discuss the merits on these issues, but to prepare a list for candidates to respond to. The list will be compiled and circulated to all candidates.

A second meeting will be held in the two to three weeks before the election. This will be an all-candidates meeting, and at this time we would expect each candidate to address the issues identified at the March meeting.

Our main concern is to encourage broad based citizen participation in the election. A wide majority of our citizens do not typically vote in township elections, even with the simple mail-in ballot that is now being used. This election is too important for us to allow the apathy to continue. We can encourage our Council and our candidates to be open to citizen participation and responsive to our ideas and visions for the future, but when we don’t take the time to find out about our candidates’ views and then to vote, the message is clear.

This article was prepared for MC(2) by Dick Byford, David Hahn, and Don MacFarlane.