Wanted: engaged voters for Waterloo Region’s elections

The nominations have closed. The great race is on. And when it’s over Waterloo Region will never be the same.

Yes, this year’s municipal election campaign — which is just underway — will be absolutely pivotal because it will give this community its first new regional chair in 33 years. Whoever succeeds Ken Seiling in this role will be responsible not only for a $1.5-billion annual budget and vital services such as policing, transit, social services and the water supply but for steering this region down a road with more than its share of bumps.

But the wild card in this democratic exercise has been tossed on the table by Premier Doug Ford who intends to slash the size of Toronto’s city council from a proposed 47 members to just 25, while also scrapping the election of regional chairs in York, Peel, Niagara and Muskoka.

Waterloo Region remains untouched. For now. But what happens if this brash, unpredictable, small-government-loving premier revisits the issue of municipal reform or even amalgamation in Waterloo Region? Where do the candidates for our local councils stand on the issue?

There are, to be sure, plenty of local challenges to occupy us all.

How will this region build the second stage of its light rail train system into Cambridge?

Where will it locate two supervised drug consumption sites, facilities that are unwanted in many neighbourhoods but which are deemed necessary to reduce the shocking number of fatal, illicit drug overdoses in this region?

How can we get more affordable and supportive housing in this community as expensive downtown redevelopment projects push out low-income renters and we become increasingly accustomed to the homeless camping in our parks?

And what about property taxes which, defying the law of gravity, only seem to go up?

There’s much for the region’s voters to ponder before Oct. 22. It’s depressing to think that, if the 2014 election is any indicator, so few will do so.

Four years ago, fewer than 30 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots in Kitchener and Cambridge while in Waterloo, voter turnout, while higher, was still just 35.9 per cent. Indeed, although voter turnout was highest in North Dumfries Township, a full 60 per cent of eligible voters stayed home.

For the sake of this region, more of its citizens must become engaged.

Ken Seiling’s decision not to run again leaves the race for regional chair wide open and four candidates are vying for the job. Because of other resignations, there will be a number of new city and regional councillors as well as school trustees running our local governments. Meanwhile, the current mayors of the region’s three cities all face competition.

Perhaps the sheer number of choices facing eligible voters discourages so many of them from having their say.

But the outcome of this municipal election will impact us all on the most basic levels — in our homes, our neighbourhoods, our schools and in the ways we care for those who can’t meet their own needs.

And if that pressing reality doesn’t convince more people to vote, they should remember the wrecking ball Premier Ford just swung into Toronto city hall. If he thought 47 politicians were too many for Toronto’s 2.5 million people, what might he say about the 66 elected regional, city and township officials who will serve Waterloo Region’s 580,000 residents?

Now is the time to get involved and send a message, not just to the headquarters of our local governments but to Ford and Queen’s Park.