During their January 12 meeting, council was provided with an update from municipal staff regarding the planning that is underway for the 2026 municipal election, which is scheduled for all Ontario municipalities on Monday, October 26. The current term of council will expire on November 14.
Meaford voters will cast their ballots by phone or internet in this year’s municipal election.
“Legislative Services has begun preparations for the 2026 Municipal & School Board election. For the 2014 and 2018 Municipal & School Board election, the Municipality of Meaford used the Internet and Telephone voting method. In 2022, the Municipality of Meaford used vote by mail and in-person voting. With the Municipality returning to Internet and Telephone voting for 2026, staff have reviewed a variety of election-related items and provided information for Council’s consideration,” staff noted in their report to council.
Voter participation in 2014 was 50.09 percent, and in 2018 was 43.84 percent using the telephone and internet voting methods.
In the last municipal election, held in 2022, the municipality used in person and mail-in ballots. Of 10,595 eligible electors, a total of 515 registered to vote by mail in that election, which saw just a 36.77 percent participation rate. Though Meaford’s voter turnout in 2022, was low, it was still slightly higher than the province wide turnout of 36.3 percent.
In 2022 Meaford had two candidates for the mayor’s position, Ross Kentner who won, and Paul Vickers who lost that election but went on to win a seat in the provincial legislature in February 2025.
Deputy Mayor Shirley Keaveney had no opposition in 2022 and was therefore acclaimed.
For the five regular council seats Meaford voters had a dozen candidates to consider, with Steve Bartley, Tony Bell, Brandon Forder, Harley Greenfield, and Robert Uhrig each earning enough votes to secure a seat on council.
Councillor Bartley, who earned more votes in 2022 of any candidate, including the two mayoral candidates, retired last year before the completion of his third term on council, and his vacant seat was later filled by the appointment of Eric Ennis, who had run for council in 2022 and had finished in sixth place.
As someone who frequently hears complaints from residents regarding the decisions made by council, I also frequently suggest to folks that they run for council themselves. Some get offended when I suggest they run for council, assuming that I am being sarcastic, but I am most certainly not. Our seven members of council aren’t special people, they aren’t created in a laboratory; they are regular citizens, residents of this municipality, our friends and neighbours. And if someone is truly outraged by the decisions that council makes, and they feel they have better solutions, or they feel that they are better qualified than those currently on council, then I absolutely think they should consider a run for council.
Beware, however, because as I have written many times over the years, the job of a municipal councillor is far from easy. It requires a significant dedication of time, not just for the Monday afternoon council meetings, but the time required to read through and understand the meeting agenda packages, often several hundred pages in length, and the time required for the handful of boards and committees on which you would sit, not to mention the time to respond to angry phone calls and email messages from ratepayers. And for all of that hard work and for all of that time dedicated you will be paid less than $30,000 per year, or close to $50,000 if you run for mayor and win.
For those who are truly built for the job of municipal councillor (not many of us are), the many hours and low pay are insignificant, as the motivation for all the best councillors I have seen over the past 35 years is to make their communities better, to offer their time and skills for the greater good.
For those planning to run for council this year, the nomination period opens on May 1, and closes on August 21.
In their report, staff outlined the restrictions that are implemented should council find itself in ‘lame duck’ territory after the nominations close.
“Section 275 of the Municipal Act restricts certain acts of Council when it is certain that fewer than 75 percent of the existing Council members will return for the next term. For the Municipality of Meaford, this occurs if six or fewer members of the current Council are elected, or available to be elected, to the new Council,” staff advised in their report. “During a lame duck period, Council’s authority is significantly limited. The Municipal Act prohibits Council from appointing or removing officers, hiring or dismissing employees, disposing of municipal property valued at more than $50,000 at the time of acquisition, or making expenditures or incurring liabilities exceeding $50,000. These restrictions may affect the timing of key operational and financial decisions and therefore require advance planning to ensure continuity of municipal operations until the new Council assumes office.”
It is too early to know how many members of our current council will seek re-election this year, so the potential for our council to be thrust into a lame duck period for a few months later this year is not yet clear.
If you are planning to throw your hat into the ring for this year’s municipal election, now is a good time to attend council meetings, or to watch them on live stream, entire meetings from start to finish. Some meetings last only a couple of hours, while others can drag on for six, seven, or more hours, and every minute of those meetings is important to someone, as insignificant as an agenda item might seem. In addition to attending or watching the meetings, it is even more important perhaps to familiarize yourself with the meeting agenda which is released on Tuesday each week prior to the Monday meetings, and to delve deeply into Ontario’s Municipal Act as that is the provincial legislation that outlines the roles and limits of municipal councillors and the municipalities they serve. There are also many important local documents to explore, including the municipal Official Plan, the council Code of Conduct, and the most recent municipal budgets, to name just a few.
So if you plan to run for council this year, the time to get to work is now. We have a busy year ahead, and by the end of it we will have a newly elected and installed council which will chart the course for this municipality for the next four years.
