Ford creates 11th hour candidate scramble
Two of five Niagara regional chair candidates choose to run for council seats
Niagara candidates running for the historic regional chair election had a mere five hours to decide their political fates when Premier Doug Ford abruptly scuttled the race Friday morning.
Calling an elected regional chair “another layer of politicians” despite the fact that the size, powers and composition of council is unchanged with an elected or appointed chair, Ford poured cold water on Niagara’s most anticipated political ballot battle mere hours before the nomination deadline.
The Premier said his government would introduce legislation Monday that would radically alter the Oct. 22 municipal election, including dramatically slashing the size of Toronto’s city council and killing the regional chair races in Niagara, Muskoka, Peel and York.
With a majority of the seats at Queen’s Park, Ford’s Better Local Government Act should pass easily and quickly.
Ford said he is changing the Municipal Act to how it was before the previous Liberal government “imposed” changes on
Ontario in 2016.
That means the regional chair will be chosen by councillors through backroom horse-trading followed by a vote after the election. The public will have no input on who becomes the chair.
The new legislation would also allow regional governments to decide if they want an elected chair for the 2022 elections.
Current regional chair Alan Caslin, Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn, former Welland Mayor Damian Goulbourne and Niagara Falls resident John Ringo Beam were forced to think and act fast without much sense of what Ford’s decision meant. Even municipal clerks around Niagara scrambled to get clarity for candidates.
What would happen to the money they have raised and spent? Would they get reimbursed by the province? Would the nomination deadline be moved? What happens if the legislation didn’t pass?
“To do this in this fashion, to take away the voting rights of thousands and thousands of people in Ontario is an affront to democracy,” said Augustyn, who got the 25 signatures he needed to qualify as a candidate Friday afternoon and file his papers to run as a regional councillor for the Town of Pelham. He will compete for a seat against longtime Pelham regional Coun. Brian Baty, Diana Huson and Jim Hagar.
“For a government that says it is ’for the people’, it is shocking to see them take away the choices the people can make about who leads their government,” he said.
Nevertheless, Augustyn said he still seeks to be Niagara’s next regional chair and will campaign across the region “to work with like-minded candidates to build a better future for Niagara.”
Like Augustyn, Caslin decided to change tack and run as a councillor for St. Catharines, where he faces a deep field of wellknown candidates, including former longtime St. Catharines MPP Jim Bradley, veteran regional councillors like former St. Catharines mayor Tim Rigby, and a cadre of newcomers.
Caslin, who opposed the notion of an elected chair in 2016 on the grounds that voters would not select the best person for the job, did not respond to interview requests from The Standard Friday.
The other candidates for chair decided to stand their ground.
Goulbourne said he intends to still run for regional chair.
He said his understanding of how the election works is that regional council could still vote to have an elected chair. If that happens, he said, he did not want to lose his opportunity to run for the office.
If the race really is dead, Goulbourne said he will return to his job at Niagara College and spend more time with his family.
On his Facebook page, Beam said he backed Goulbourne’s stance “100 %” and was also letting his name stand for chair in opposition to Ford’s move.
While the unprecedented political events unfolded Friday morning and the fate of Niagara having an elected regional chair became clear, Niagara-on-theLake resident Aaron Scott Michael Stack registered to run for chair and at press time, had not withdrawn his nomination.
Stack did not respond to an interview request.
Brock University political science professor David Seigel said Ford’s “ham-handed” move has no historical equivalent and will make relationships between municipalities and Queen’s Park more difficult.
“Constitutionally, the province can do whatever it wants with the municipalities, but past governments worked very hard at building a partnership with the municipalities, because it’s so important in Ontario,” he said. “This is going to make it very difficult for Ford to build those partnerships and I suspect we haven’t seen the last of this sort of thing.”
The snap upheaval of the municipal election also means chair
“To do this in this fashion, to take away the voting rights of thousands and thousands of people in Ontario is an affront to democracy.”
DAVE AUGUSTYN, CANDIDATE
FOR REGIONAL COUNCIL IN PELHAM
candidates who already spent money on their campaigns will not get it back.
In an email, a spokesman for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs said candidates will not be reimbursed for spending on a campaign that no longer exists.
Augustyn and Caslin won’t be able to use the money they raised to run for chair for their council campaigns.
“Under the Municipal Elections Act, once a campaign ends and a surplus remains after candidates have refunded contributions made by them or their spouse, the surplus must be paid to the clerk,” the ministry spokesman wrote. “The surplus will be held in trust and would be available to offset expenses incurred due to a compliance audit. If the surplus is not needed for those expenses, it becomes the property of the municipality or school board.”
Augustyn and Goulbourne both said they had already spent campaign funds on websites, campaign managers and other materials. Goulbourne said he cancelled billboards Friday, and Augustyn said signs and pamphlets that were to be ordered Friday have been cancelled.
Caslin launched his campaign with a professionally made video and has posted photos of himself on social media holding campaign pamphlets.
-with files from Karena Walter
Grant.LaFleche@niagaradailies.com