Although it is understandable, given the compulsion of Northern Manitobans to get the most out of summer and the fact that the first day that council and school board candidates could register was on the last day of school, it is still somewhat unfortunate that, as of July 30, only one candidate for mayor, one candidate for council and one candidate for either council or school board trustee who will have to make a decision on which one before late September, have registered for this year’s municipal election.
While there may be strategic reasons for not stepping forward earlier, including the perception that perhaps would-be voters aren’t paying attention with the election still nearly three months away, and there are certainly interested people who just haven’t returned all the necessary forms yet, doing so could be beneficial for those in whose hands the decision-making power lies, by giving them more opportunity to hear from their next potential mayors, councillors and school board trustees about what their vision for the city or school division is over the next four years and to compare it with their own feelings and those of the other candidates.
So far, however, not choosing to officially put their names forward hasn’t hurt potential candidates, since those who have declared their intentions, including mayoral candidate Penny Byer and council candidate Godfrey Buhagiar, who has attended many of the meetings throughout the past term, have not seized advantage by proclaiming their intentions or campaigning in any serious way that would give them a substantial leg up on their later-joining rivals.
Is seven-plus weeks between Labour Day weekend and voting day on Oct. 24 enough time to make a decision on which candidate you prefer? In the case of the mayoral race, it quite likely is, with the past few elections featuring only two or three candidates to pick from. The same goes for the school board trustee race, which could well be one in which merely putting one’s name forward is enough to obtain a better-than-even chance of being elected. When it comes to council, however, it gives voters less than one week to devote to thinking about each available seat, among the myriad other tasks they have to attend to in their daily lives, and comes at a time when school is getting back in swing and fall sports like hockey and figure skating are starting back up.
The truth is, although the mayoral race is important, each individual councillor has a vote that will be worth just as much as the mayor’s, though they do not enjoy the power to unilaterally appoint the heads of committees. That being so, it is important for voters to put nearly as much thought into who they mark down on the ballot for the eight council positions as they do for the city’s next mayor. Last time around, there were two candidates for every one councillor position and this newspaper was hard-pressed to give every council, school board and mayoral candidate who wanted one an individual interview in the time between the unofficial end of summer and voting day, with the result being that some may not have had their positions made known to our readers until the final week or last few days before the election.
The people who take over following this fall’s election are going to be in power for four years at a critical time in Thompson’s history, which could determine whether the community sinks or swims. Hopefully voters will have sufficient time to make well-educated choices about who they want to helm the ship through those turbulent waters ahead.
