Waterloo (City) Election Talk

[Spokes]

D’Ailly to challenge Halloran in Waterloo mayoral race
December 17, 2009 | Jeff Outhit, Record Staff | http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/646106

WATERLOO — There will be a heavyweight race for mayor in Waterloo next year.

Coun. Jan d’Ailly revealed Thursday that he will challenge Mayor Brenda Halloran, who is seeking re-election.

It’s an early launch to the 2010 municipal campaign. The election is expected next October and candidates can’t even register until January.

D’Ailly, 50, was first elected to Waterloo council in 2003 and now represents Ward 6. He runs a waste-energy technology company, and has management experience in business development and strategic planning.

“I move projects forward and get things done,” he said, citing his council and business experience. “It’s time to move the city forward.”

Incumbent Halloran, 54, is completing her first term and said she has more she wants to do, including working to bring more doctors and a family health team to the city.

“I’m very confident in the job I’ve done as mayor,” she said. “I’ve given this community strong leadership.”

She was not surprised to learn d’Ailly will challenge her. “I’ve known for quite a while he was planning on running.”

Residents re-elected d’Ailly in 2006 after he had a run-in with the law in 2004.

He had to comply with the terms of a peace bond, commonly known as a restraining order, in return for the withdrawal of an assault charge laid after he slapped his wife.

“I made a mistake,” D’Ailly said. He has since divorced and remarried and says he has put the private incident behind him.


New faces but no major reforms in local elections
December 28, 2009 | Jeff Outhit, Record Staff | http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/649378

WATERLOO REGION — You’ll see an earlier election date and you’ll see two city councils expand in the municipal campaign that launches Jan. 4.

But you won’t see the major reforms that a pro-reform lobby group was seeking.

Highlights of the 2010 municipal election:

It’s been moved ahead to Oct. 25, to escape miserable November weather. The term remains four years.

Kitchener is adding four councillors. Cambridge is adding two councillors. The total number of municipal politicians in the region will grow by six to 57.

Waterloo residents and some others will be asked by referendum if they want to continue fluoridating drinking water.

Pro-reform residents had called on politicians to merge some local councils in 2010, saying this would streamline municipal government. Their effort, launched in 2008, got little traction and politicians chose instead to tinker with the election.

“We’re disappointed but we’re not discouraged,” said Jim Erb, spokesperson for the group Citizens for Better Government. He said he hopes candidates make reform a municipal election issue.

Local mayors applaud the provincial government for advancing the election to the fourth Monday in October. It’s hoped this change will improve turnout.

“The date will probably make it more convenient for people,” said Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr, who has not decided whether to seek re-election.

The new date shortens the long municipal campaign by a few days, sets the election in potentially better weather, and gives local governments more time to prepare for the inauguration of new councils.

Cambridge council is expanding to nine members in the election. Kitchener council is expanding to 11. Proponents contend expansions will improve governance and spread the council workload around.

“It will allow for a wider diversity of opinion on council, and of course representation,” said Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig, who is seeking re-election. “I think that’s very good news for everybody.”

“You have a chance of having more representation and more views on a subject, so that’s a good thing from a democratic standpoint,” Zehr said.

Zehr expects the next Kitchener council will be mostly newcomers, as council opens up four new seats and some incumbents decline to see re-election.

Waterloo council is staying at eight members. Regional council is staying at 16, including seven mayors. Four townships are staying at five members each.

The municipal campaign formally launches Jan. 4, the first day candidates can register for office. They must register before they can raise money or spend it.

Zehr and Craig want local politicians to debate municipal reform during the next council term. Regional Chair Ken Seiling doubts reform will happen until provincial politicians signal their interest in shaping it.

“Clearly the province hasn’t shown an interest in touching municipal structures,” said Seiling, who has not announced if he will seek re-election.

Ontario has made changes to financing rules for the municipal election. The province will also require more accessible voting places.

[Spokes]

Candidates gear up for municipal elections
January 4, 2010 | Melinda Dalton, Record Staff | http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/650114

WATERLOO REGION — Municipal elections may still be months away, but the race is on already in several communities across Waterloo Region.

Monday marked the first official day candidates could register for the October elections in the three cities and the region.

First out of the gate in Waterloo was Mayor Brenda Halloran, who registered her bid for a second term.

Close behind was Waterloo Ward 6 Coun. Jan d’Ailly, who informally announced his intention to run for the mayor’s job in December, but officially registered Monday.

D’Ailly has served as the councillor for the city’s Central-Columbia neighbourhood since 2003.

Also stepping forward Monday in Waterloo was Coun. Diane Freeman, who will campaign to keep her spot as Ward 4 councillor, and Dr. Anne Crowe, a family physician, who will run for councillor in Ward 6.

Waterloo is the only city in the region where voters will elect the same number of council members as in the previous election.

Kitchener and Cambridge will expand their ward system and council tables to 10 and eight members respectively.

Community activist Scott Piatkowski announced early Monday morning he’ll be running for Kitchener’s Ward 8 seat, one of the city’s newly created wards which will include the Forest Hill, Victoria Hills and Westmount neighbourhoods. Piatkowski ran for the Ward 6 seat in the last municipal election and lost out to the incumbent, Christina Weylie.

He was the only person to file nomination paperwork in Kitchener on Monday.

Kitchener Mayor Carl Zehr has not yet publicly announced if he’ll run again. In December, Zehr became the city’s longest serving mayor. He was first elected in 1997 and won his fourth consecutive election in 2006 with nearly 68 per cent of the vote.

In an email response Monday, Zehr suggested he won’t be rushing to a decision on any potential re-election campaign.

Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig and Ward 5 Coun. Pam Wolf formally submitted the paperwork needed to launch their campaigns Monday, as did Ward 1 candidate, Donna Reid.

Both Ward 5 and Ward 1 will look different following the fall election.

The southeastern portion of Ward 5, below St. Andrews Street, will be moved into Ward 6.

The boundaries of the current Ward 1 will be redrawn to include the portion of Hespeler north of the Speed River as well as a part of Preston.

Wolf, a former public school teacher, was a political newcomer in 2006 when she unseated the Ward 5 incumbent.

Reid, a retired teacher, ran and lost to the current Ward 1 councillor, Rick Cowsill, in the same election.

Regional Chair Ken Seiling has yet to make an announcement on whether he’ll run again for the position he’s held for 25 years.

Candidates in all three cities, the region and the townships have until Sept. 10 to register for the Oct. 25 election.

To run for municipal office, you must:

— Be 18 or older
— Live, own property or be the spouse or common-law partner of someone who owns property in the municipality
— Be legally allowed to vote
— Not be disqualified by legislation from holding office
— Pay the nomination filing fee of $100 for councillors and $200 for mayor or regional chair.

For more information on the nomination process, see the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing’s 2010 Municipal Election Guide at www.mah.gov.on.ca/Page5606.aspx, check your city’s website or contact the city clerk in your municipality.

[Spokes]

Race for 2010 election is on
Jan 6, 2010 | Greg MacDonald, Chronicle Staff | http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/article/198982

The race is on — officially.

Two candidates have formally declared their intention to run for the mayor of Waterloo.

Incumbent mayor Brenda Halloran will face off against two-term Coun. Jan d’Ailly for the top job in the city. Both declared their intentions to run weeks ago, but put in their formal declarations on Monday, the first official day to do so.

Some of the wards also have candidates after the first two days of the declaration period.

Coun. Diane Freeman will run again in Ward 3 in the east end of the city. Freeman is finishing up her first term as a councillor in an area that covers RIM Park and Eastbridge.

A new candidate is in the running for the ward that Coun. Jan d’Ailly will vacate.

Anne Crowe, a local doctor who works at Grand River Hospital, will run for d’Ailly’s seat. Crowe, 54, has lived in the ward since 1981 and will run on a platform of financial and environmental stability.

She decided to run because she wants to something to be done about climate change following the Copenhagen conference.

“Municipalities have a great potential to do things in the short-term,” Crowe said.

Four candidates declared on the first day of eligibility, according to Susan Greatrix, the city clerk. That’s large in comparison to the one candidate who declared on the first day during the 2006 election.

The election is set for Oct. 25 after changes made by the provincial government.

[Spokes]

More candidates declare for election
Feb 03, 2010 | http://www.waterloochronicle.ca/news/article/201542

Coun. Jane Mitchell has announced her intention to run for regional council again this fall.

Mitchell has been on regional council since 2000 and is chair of the employment and income advisory committee, past-chair of the licensing and retail committee, vice-chair of the community service committee.

On the city side, incumbents Karen Scian and Angela Vieth have declared their intention to run again.

Both will be running for their second term on council.

Scian represents Ward 2 in the northwest of the city, while Vieth represents Ward 3, known as Lakeshore.

Coun. Diane Freeman has also declared her intention to run for a second term in Ward 4 on the east side of the city, while newcomer Anne Crowe will run in Ward 6.

Current Ward 6 Coun. Jan d’Ailly will challenge incumbent Mayor Brenda Halloran for the city’s top job in October.

[UrbanWaterloo]

Super-Stickied this thread so it will be easier to follow as we get closer to the election. 32 weeks to go. Is anyone here considering running for a position?

[uptownfoodcritic]

Super-Stickied this thread so it will be easier to follow as we get closer to the election. 32 weeks to go. Is anyone here considering running for a position?

I'd say the Uptown Ward is very vulnerable to a well-organized challenge. Supposedly, Ian Mclean has not been attending a lot of the committee meeting he is supposed so he could be weakened by that.

Someone with a pro-Uptown viewpoint could likely win it.

[Spokes]

I'd say the Uptown Ward is very vulnerable to a well-organized challenge. Supposedly, Ian Mclean has not been attending a lot of the committee meeting he is supposed so he could be weakened by that.

Someone with a pro-Uptown viewpoint could likely win it.

I wouldn't be opposed to seeing someone with a big vision for uptown come in and shake things up a bit. Even if they don't win, to get some issues out there and into the public debate

[J.D. McGuire]

I will likely be running in Central-Columbia Ward 6 in Waterloo. Right now, my platform includes a hard look at the University housing situations (Northdale specifically) and finding municipal government efficiencies. For clarity's sake, "efficiencies" are not to be taken as a want to cut staff or programs; it's simply a policy against ridiculous wasting of time and money (ex. asking city staff to prepare a report on asking the provincial government if they can ask the citizens of Waterloo if it's alright for Council to ask Kitchener to discuss whether or not we should ask the citizens if we should ask the provicial government to merge our two cities). You would not believe how many times I had to re-read that for accuracy.

J.D. McGuire

[Spokes]

Great news! Looking forward to hearing more about your ideas and the process of it all.

[Brenden]

So which one of our Wonderful Waterloo members is going to be running?

[UrbanWaterloo]

Well is anyone on here named Dan? Just think of all the money we'd save on marketing!

[Spokes]

Ya you'd think it'd inspire someone to run for office.

Fine if I must, I will! haha.

[ElmiraGuy]

I have a question that I am almost embarrassed to ask, but here it goes.

While certainly not new to the region, I have never lived in K-W at the time of an election, and so am unfamiliar with the wards, candidates, and their platforms.

I live in the Weber & Erb area. What ward is this?

Also, I am a very avid supporter of the LRT, and increased densification. Are there any candidates that I might vote for who best reflect these approaches? Are there any I should avoid?

Thanks very much for any guidance you can provide.

Cheers!

[IEFBR14]

Welcome to WW, ElmiraGuy.

Here's a page with ward maps that shows their boundaries: Ward Information. I can understand your confusion, if not your embarrassment. The latter belongs to the City of Waterloo and/or your local councilor for not automatically sending you and all new residents a "welcome package" that answers these sorts of questions.

As for pro-LRT and pro-pedestrian/cycling candidates I too am waiting with bated breath to hear the sales pitches. I'd imagine that as in the past, there will be all-candidates meetings in each ward.

[Spokes]

Yup it's a bit too soon to decide who's going to argue what. What I've got in mind though is come election time, a thread with all candidates and their positions on various policies as a reference tool.

[taylortbb]

TriTAG will be issuing questionnaires to all candidates, and doing some sort of response aggregation to help people compare. We'll make sure to cover everything transit/cycling/pedestrian. TriTAG will not be endorsing specific candidates, so I'm not going to say anything about any specific person that's pro-LRT.

[UrbanWaterloo]

I live in the Weber & Erb area. What ward is this?

Either Ward 5 or Ward 7

Also, I am a very avid supporter of the LRT, and increased densification. Are there any candidates that I might vote for who best reflect these approaches? Are there any I should avoid?

Technically the election race has begun, but in practical terms it only starts to heat up after the Labour Day weekend. For now I'm just keeping a list of candidates and their websites on the first post of this thread. As we approach September, we'll come up with a scorecard ranking candidates on various issues. I also want to do some daily rolling average local polling starting in September, so if there's any interested volunteers who'd like to call a few random citizens a day let me know. This is something we'll start to discuss at the May Meet.

[ElmiraGuy]

Welcome to WW, ElmiraGuy.

Here's a page with ward maps that shows their boundaries: Ward Information. I can understand your confusion, if not your embarrassment. The latter belongs to the City of Waterloo and/or your local councilor for not automatically sending you and all new residents a "welcome package" that answers these sorts of questions.

As for pro-LRT and pro-pedestrian/cycling candidates I too am waiting with bated breath to hear the sales pitches. I'd imagine that as in the past, there will be all-candidates meetings in each ward.

Thanks very much for the website.

I moved back to the area three years ago after a mind-numbing hiatus in very far northern Ontario. Before that it was England, and before that Kingston. Prior to that I lived on Laurel Street in Waterloo (man has it gone downhill) but was still voting for the Woolwich council. Now, finally, I have been enumerated to vote in Waterloo.

Spokes: That's a great idea to put up a dedicated thread as election time draws closer.

taylortbb: Also a great idea to give the candidates a questionaire to draw out (hopefully) their position on the LRT.

And thanks to UrbanWaterloo for the links. Ward 5 it is! Right on the border!

[Spokes]

Third candidate enters Waterloo mayoral race
May 16, 2010 | Jeff Outhit, Record Staff

WATERLOO — Gord Hague is running for mayor of Waterloo in the Oct. 25 municipal election, bringing the declared number of candidates to three.

Hague, an entrepreneur, has no city council experience. But he says he has been a business leader and problem-solver for 20 years and he believes his skills suit the top council job.

Rivals for the post to date include incumbent Brenda Halloran, elected in 2006 without council experience, and veteran councillor Jan d’Ailly.

Hague, 49, opposes merging with Kitchener and will vote “no” in the election referendum that seeks to authorize merger talks. He says not enough information has been provided to justify such a step.

“From what I’ve understood from other amalgamations they haven’t been successful,” he said. “The people aren’t happy that it’s gone on and it hasn’t resulted in cost savings.”

Hague also contends council owes the public an explanation, after the Waterloo library board sparked outcry by dismissing chief librarian Cathy Matyas without cause. “We needed some accountability from the city,” he said, pointing out that the city provides most library funding.

Hague graduated from high school in Waterloo and earned a business administration degree from the University of Western Ontario. Most recently, he has worked to provide project management as an independent contractor. His election website is at www.gordhagueformayor.com

He lives in the Beechwood suburb, has been married 24 years, and has three children.