After being presented with two options for filling the council seat left vacant after three-term councillor Steve Bartley’s recent departure, Meaford council has opted to appoint a replacement rather than hold a by-election, a wise choice given the timing.
With the next municipal election a little over a year away, council’s decision to appoint someone to fill Bartley’s vacant seat makes sense. A by-election is costly, time consuming, and likely to have very low turnout, and so it is not a practical option this far into council’s four-year term.
Council had two primary options to fill the vacant seat: they could hold a by-election, or appoint a replacement. They actually had three options, as there were two methods included in the staff report to council for appointing someone to fill the vacant council seat. Council could look to the municipal election results from 2022 and appoint the candidate that finished sixth in the race for the five available council seats, and if that person did not want the position they would move to the seventh place candidate, then the eighth, and so on until they had a replacement. Alternatively, council could issue a call for nominees, allowing anyone, including candidates in the 2022 municipal election, to apply for the position, and then council would appoint a new member from the pool of nominees.
To hold a by-election would take significantly longer than appointing a new member, with the staff report to council suggesting that the process would take two to four months, and it would cost about as much as a regular municipal election with a full slate of candidates.
Had the vacancy occurred just a year into the council term, with three years remaining, the cost and effort required for a by-election might be justified, but with just a year to go in the term, less by the time a new member of council is appointed, the appointment option makes more sense.
I must admit, I have been torn between the two appointment options, and I think some members of council were as well. Each option has its merits. On the one hand, as Councillor Brandon Forder noted during council’s discussion on Monday, those who were on the ballot for the 2022 municipal election had done the work. They had launched campaigns, knocked on doors, and they experienced the anxiety of election day. Had council opted to haul out the 2022 municipal election results (they were included in the staff report to council) in order to nominate the sixth place finisher for the regular council seats, I would have been comfortable with that, but I am also comfortable with the route that council has chosen, which is to put out a call for nominees, allowing anyone, whether they were candidates in the last municipal election or not, to put their names forward for council to consider before making an appointment.
Whoever fills the vacant council seat will barely have time to get their feet wet before the next election campaign period arrives. At most they will serve for ten months, but for anyone that has been considering becoming a candidate in next year’s municipal election, an appointment to the current council, even if only for ten months, would be great experience if the appointed member chose to run for election in 2026.
I am very much looking forward to seeing the list of applicants along with their statements before council.
The process of calling for candidates who want to be considered for appointment to the vacant seat could give us an early look at who some of the candidates might be in next year’s municipal election. It will be interesting to hear what issues the nominees consider to be the most pressing, as well as how they envision the future of this municipality.
I am hopeful that there is a good response to the call for nominees, and that council receives a healthy number of candidates from which to choose. The more candidates that apply for consideration, the tougher council’s decision will be, but we elect our members of council to make tough decisions, don’t we? The more applicants the better in my humble opinion.
The municipal Clerk has already issued the call for nominations, as time is of the essence. So now that the notice has been issued, if you want to be considered to fill the vacant council seat, be sure to follow the process and get your name before council for consideration. Even if you aren’t successful in securing that vacant seat, if you have been considering a run for council next year, the experience will be worthwhile.
So there is a vacant council seat up for grabs, and while this term of council might be heading into the final stretch of its four-year term, there is still time for the appointed member to have a meaningful contribution to the governance of this municipality before we shift into municipal election campaign mode next year.
If you have been thinking about putting your name on the ballot for next year’s municipal election, to be held on October 26, 2026, it might be worth applying for consideration for the appointment to the current vacant seat. Ten months won’t be enough time to change the world, but the experience gained, even in the short time that will remain in the term, would be helpful for anyone who has been thinking about running for a council seat next year.
