Dear Editor,
Only months ago, it looked as though deputy mayor Shirley Keaveney – the chief booster on council for TC Energy’s pumped storage project – was about to be acclaimed as mayor in the Oct. 26 municipal elections. At the last minute, two citizens, neither with anything like her public profile, threw their hats into the ring.
One ran on a platform of defeating the project and protecting Meaford ‘s environment while developing green energy sources (instead of risking toxic pollution of Georgian Bay). The other said he also opposes the project. Between them they got 2,457 votes, just 170 shy of the 2,627 scored by the mayor-elect.
In addition, two of the councillor candidates who clearly oppose the project each received significantly more votes than the incoming mayor.
Can there be any remaining doubt that this project is unpopular?
More than 3,300 written signatures opposing the project and at least 40,000 more online had previously been collected by Save Georgian Bay. This opposition was known but ignored when the outgoing council gave its blessing to the project in February 2023, as a “conditional” willing host. Some parties may have tried to portray that 2023 council vote as representative of wishes of the community but clearly, as the latest municipal electoral results show, it was not.
Now, with the benefit of much more information than was available in 2023 and a clear message from voters, the new council should revisit that willing-host motion as soon as possible.
That is, if the will of the people means anything to those entrusted with power.
Clair Balfour, Meaford
