Five candidates to vie for Port Hope council seat

With the nomination period closed, Port Hope municipal officials announced there will be five candidates contending for the rural Ward 2 council seat in June.

They include John Bickle and Louise Ferrie Blecher, who have both held council positions in Port Hope in the past, along with Darrell Toms, Freyja Jorgensen, and Sarah Turck.

Both Toms and Bickle ran for one of two Ward 2 seats in the 2022 municipal election, with Toms finishing 34 votes ahead of Bickle.

The two ward seats eventually went to Vicki Mink and Chris Collins, but earlier this year Collins announced he would have to resign his seat.

Collins was forced to vacate the seat after he was appointed to serve as a provincial justice of the peace.

Per the Justices of the Peace Act, Collins is no longer eligible to serve as a member of town council due to the requirement that a justice of the peace must terminate other employment and abstain from engaging in any political activities upon appointment.

Council had considered appointing a qualified representative from the community to the role, but after lengthy debate in March, it opted to have voters return to the polls.

The move will cost taxpayers an estimated $25,000, but council felt it will give voters a better say in who will represent them for the next couple of years.

At a recent council meeting, a bylaw was passed to authorize the use of internet and telephone voting as an alternative voting method in the byelection. This method was successfully used for the 2018 and the 2022 municipal elections.