If you are considering launching a campaign for a seat at Meaford’s council table for the 2026 to 2030 term, the nomination period opens in just two weeks.
Beginning May 1, candidates will be able to file their nomination paperwork with the municipal Clerk, and anyone wanting to be on the ballot will need to submit their nomination paperwork by August 21.
Opting to run for a council seat is a major decision, and not one that most take lightly, as should you win, you are committing to four years of council meetings, committee meetings, and angry email messages and phone calls from residents, all of which require a significant amount of time.
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 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 roughly $50,000 if you run for mayor and win.
As I wrote on this page back in January, 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.
If you do plan to run for council, it would be wise to do some homework, lots of homework, and you can begin that homework by reviewing the two reports presented to council at Monday’s meeting: Election Report number 3 (LEG2026-04), and a report focused on the inaugural meeting of the 2026-2030 term of council (LEG2026-05). Both reports contain a wealth of information that can get you started on the road to preparing a council campaign.
Potential candidates can also watch previous council meetings on the municipality’s YouTube channel, as each meeting is live-streamed and then archived on the channel. All council meeting agendas along with all of the reports to council can be found on the council meeting portal (https://meaford.civicweb.net/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx). I would also suggest downloading 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 are planning on running for council, and have not yet delved into such documents, you had best start now.
With the nomination period opening in just two weeks, it is too early to know yet how many members of our current council will seek re-election, but once May 1 arrives, candidates will begin submitting their paperwork and kicking off their campaigns. Some of those candidates will be incumbents, while many will be attempting to secure a seat at the council table for the very first time.
As noted in a report to council presented at Monday’s meeting, the campaign period begins the day a candidate files their nomination, though election signs cannot be used in the municipality until August 27. A candidate cannot incur any expenses, nor accept any contributions outside of the campaign period.
The new term of council will begin on November 15, and staff is planning for the inaugural meeting of the newly elected council to be held on Monday, November 16.
With each municipal election I always hope for lots of candidates and a healthy voter turnout. While we often have a number of candidates to choose from, voter turnout has not been stellar in recent elections.
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 in 2022 earned the most votes 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.
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.
Hopefully the return to telephone and internet voting methods for this year’s election will improve voter participation, and it would be really nice to see more than 50 percent of eligible voters actually cast ballots this time around.
So, if you are planning to run for council, I assume that you have already been studying and preparing, but if you haven’t, get busy now as before we know it the campaigns will be in full swing as we march toward the October 26 election day.
To all who choose to run for council this year, whether you ultimately win or lose, I want to thank you for putting your name forward, and for being willing to serve your community in a very important role for the next four years.
