Municipal Elections (Part 2)
A look at who is running (or not) this Fall
In part one of the Municipal Elections Round-up, I listed current candidates running for the three municipalities (Cambridge, Kitchener, and Waterloo) and for Regional Council. Since the time of publishing, several other people have filed their nomination papers. They include:
Scott Davey (Kitchener, ward 1)
Paul Singh (Kitchener, ward 6)
Paul Brown (Cambridge, ward 1)
Kari Williams (Regional Council for Kitchener)
Also, I ran a Twitter poll earlier this week asking about the importance of elected officials living in the riding they represent. The question: How important is it to you that your potential elected officials live within the area that they are running to represent? 54% of respondents said it was ‘extremely important’ and another 35% said it was ‘somewhat important’. My experience when running in 2018 was that some people (but not a majority) asked me if I lived in the ward. Of course, some may not have asked because they already knew I lived in the ward. Overall, it didn’t feel like it was a main issue of concern, but my (very unscientific) poll suggests that most people want their elected officials to live in the area they represent. If you have a moment, you may want to read the comments to the poll as I found people’s reasoning (for or against) really informative.
Before we take a closer look at the townships and school boards, I want to include a caveat. I am not as familiar with these positions and to be honest, I found some of it confusing with different names for wards, some townships having more than one candidate for each ward, and more (thank you to the representatives I messaged, for answering my questions so promptly!). Also, given the high number of seats without anyone registered, definitely left me wondering if the township websites are updated regularly or not. So, I have done my best to lay out what I know but please reach out if I have misrepresented something. With that caveat, let’s take a look at what we know so far.
Mayor
Current mayor Sue Foxton has announced she is seeking re-election. No other candidates are currently registered.
Ward 1
No candidates are currently registered.
Ward 2
No candidates are currently registered.
Ward 3
No candidates are currently registered.
Ward 4
No candidates are currently registered.
Wellesley
Mayor
Current Wellesley mayor Joe Nowak is seeking re-election. No other candidates are currently registered.
Ward 1
No candidates are currently registered.
Ward 2
No candidates are currently registered.
Ward 3
No candidates are currently registered.
Ward 4
No candidates are currently registered.
Wilmot
Mayor
Current Wilmot ward 4 councillor, Jenn Pfenning is running for mayor. One other candidate has also filed:
Ward 1
No candidates are currently registered.
Ward 2
Ward 3
Ward 4 (elect 2):
Woolwich
Mayor
There is currently one person, Pat Merlihan (current ward 1 councillor for Wilmot), registered to run for mayor of Woolwich.
Ward 1 (elect two):
No candidates are currently registered.
Ward 2
No candidates are currently registered.
Ward 3 (elect two):
No candidates are currently registered.
Kitchener (elect four)
We haven’t yet heard about any current Kitchener trustees about running again, but we do have a lot of folks already registered for this race:
Waterloo/Wilmot (elect three):
Current WRDSB Chair, Scott Piatkowski is running for re-election. Two others have also filed their nomination papers:
George Schmidt
Woolwich/Wellesley (elect one)
Cambridge/North Dumfries (elect three):
Incumbent Cindy Watson is running again this Fall. No others have registered as of yet.
Cambridge/North Dumfries (elect 2):
No candidates are currently registered.
Kitchener/Wilmot (Elect 4):
Incumbent Tracey Weiler is seeking re-election. Three other candidates are also currently registered:
Waterloo/Wellesley/Woolwich (elect 2):
No candidates are currently registered.
Current Township Representatives:
North Dumfries
Mayor – Sue Foxton
Ward 1 – Rod Rolleman
Ward 2 – Derrick Ostner
Ward 3 – Margaret McCreery
Ward 4 – Pamela Gillespie
Wellesley
Mayor – Joe Nowak
Ward 1 – Shelley Wagner
Ward 2 – Herb Neher
Ward 3 – Peter van der Maas
Ward 4 – Carl Smit
Wilmot
Mayor – Les Armstrong
Ward 1 – Angie Hallman
Ward 2 –Cheryl Gordijk
Ward 3 – Barry Fisher
Ward 4 – Jennifer Pfenning
Ward 4 – Jeff Gerber
Woolwich
Mayor – Sandy Shantz
Ward 1 – Scott MacMillan
Ward 1 – Patrick Merlihan
Ward 2 – Fred Redekop
Ward 3 – Murray Martin
Ward 3 – Larry Shantz