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The mayoralty race got started today (Sunday) when Deputy Mayor Sandra Cooper held a meet-and-greet at the Legion. And if that meeting was an indication of the trend among local voters, I'd suggest Sandra already has a lengthy lead against her competition.


Originally booked for the Legion's small room, organizers nervously took a last-minute chance and booked the larger room, but had only set up about half the room with chairs and tables, hoping for a modest turn out. By the time Sandra spoke to the crowd, tables and chairs had been shuffled out of storage to fill the room, with very few left empty. It was a full audience.

And it wasn't just the usual circle of friends and family around her. There were a lot of supporters,...

An uncredited photo from the mayor's news "blog": two election hopefuls and their albatross. Looks like a big, happy family. Once upon a time, it was. The two councillors beside him were ardent supporters of the mayor and pretty much followed his lead back when this council was newly elected. You could basically count on a six-three vote back then. What the mayor wanted, the mayor got. I was, of course, one of the three on the losing side of many fights.
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I plan to bring a notice of motion to the table, Monday night, asking for a referendum question to be added to the 2010 ballot.

My motion will be to request that the 2010 ballot include the question, "Should Collingwood implement a ward system for future municipal elections?"

Given the refusal of the mayor (and his supporters) to allow public input into the debate over a ward system or into the debate over the method of balloting (mail-in versus walk-in) when both were brought to the council table, earlier, I don't really expect it to be passed. After all, the majority of members of council, including the mayor, owe their success at the table to the efforts of special interest group lobbying. That sort of effort would be...