Several area municipal spots up for grabs with less than 30 days left to file

By Lee Griffi

There are many good seats available with one month remaining to file nominations papers in upcoming municipal election rates.

A University of Western Ontario professor is an expert in the field of local politics and he said there were several reasons why so few people run for office including what he called the incumbency advantage.

“Incumbents have a huge advantage at the polls and it’s very substantial,” explained Martin Horak, associate professor and director at the school’s Centre for Urban Policy and Local Governance. “In small places where we don’t have political parties, name recognition matters. A lot of people tend to vote for the folks who are familiar unless they are really unhappy with them.”

Horak said the situation often leads to the same people being voted into office for long periods of time and discourages others from putting their hat in the ring. He added it’s also very difficult to get people to run for office and the pay municipal politicians receive also acts as a barrier.

“They typically come with small honorariums, people have other things to do, and these days, politicians face a lot of public criticism and even abuse and people know that. It can be really hard to get folks to run for that reason as well.”

As of July 23, in South Huron there are three registered candidates for the position of mayor and also one for the deputy mayor spot. There are three candidates in Wards 1 and 2 each, but none are signed up to run in Ward 3.

In Lambton Shores, the slate of candidates is much emptier. Both the mayor and deputy mayor races have a single candidate each. Ward 7 is set to be the most contested ward with two candidates, while Wards 4, 5 and 6 each have one candidate. Wards 1, 2, and 3 lack anyone on the ballot.

Bluewater is set to see a two-way race for mayor, while one candidate is looking to become deputy mayor. Though Zurich has two candidates on the ballot, every other ward has a single unopposed candidate, except in Hensall where none have signed up to run.

Lucan Biddulph is on track to have races in the majority of its elections. Two candidates are looking to become the next mayor, while the deputy mayor race has a single unopposed candidate. Ward 1 has two candidates, Ward 3 has three, and Ward 2 is set to be an unopposed run for a single candidate.

Horak said many smaller municipalities in Ontario and Quebec see incumbents re-elected on a regular basis and they are often acclaimed as no one runs against them. He added anyone attempting to defeat an incumbent may need to get their chequebook out.

“It doesn’t matter if (incumbents) spend money or not, they have the same likelihood of winning again. For non-incumbents, the spending can make a difference. It doesn’t necessarily overcome the incumbency advantage but in order to win, non-incumbents do have to spend money and mobilize volunteers whereas those in office can usually coast into re-election.”

Nearly one in every 11 municipal candidates in Ontario was acclaimed in the 2022 election. About 8.7 per cent of all candidates won their seats without opposition, up from 7.2 per cent in 2018, according to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario.

32 of Ontario’s 444 municipalities had entire councils acclaimed, meaning no municipal election was required in those communities. They all had populations under 10,000 and 22 were located in northern Ontario.

Horak said there are some solutions to get more people on the ballot for municipal elections

“You can increase renumeration but people are often reluctant to go down that road. I chaired the Council Compensation Task Force here in London last year and we recommended a significant salary increase, partly to attract really good quality people to run but the public didn’t like it.”

He added more people tend to run in places where good local media coverage exists and people actually know what’s happening at the municipal government level. The same can be said in municipalities where a scandal has occurred.

“People then sense an opportunity when there is a lot of attention being paid to a race. It brings out not only candidates, but more voters.”

Horak noted there are some countries which have made voting mandatory including Australia.

Voter turnout during the 2022 election was much higher locally than the provincial average which sat at 32.9 per cent.