Giving a boost to local democracy – more candidates seeking election and higher voter turnout – is the impetus of the ‘Run for Office’ event being presented April 21 by Woolwich Healthy Communities (WHC).
The idea is to counter downward trends when it comes to choice of candidates and voter engagement in the region’s rural townships, says WHC chair Inga Rinne.
“The Healthy Communities group was talking about the upcoming elections and bemoaning the fact that so often in the past, particularly in the townships but not exclusively, you have acclamations. That didn’t seem to make for particularly engaged communities. Nor did it provide for much in the way of lively discussion about options for our local communities,” she explained.
“We thought, ‘well, besides bemoaning the math, what can we do about it?’”
Discussions with other community groups quickly revealed that while there’s plenty of interest in political goings-on, there’s more than a little reluctance to get involved by standing for office.
Thus was born the Run for Office event that will draw on the experiences of municipal politicians past and present to explain to prospective candidates what they can expect in opting to seek public office. There will also be presentations by former Alberta MLA and community promoter Doug Griffiths and University of Calgary political scientist Jack Lucas, who is the project director of the Canadian Municipal Barometer, an annual survey of municipal politicians from across the country.
Local politicians taking part include Rod Rolleman of North Dumfries Township, Shelley Wagner of Wellesley, Angie Hallman of Wilmot and Patrick Merlihan of Woolwich. Former Region of Waterloo chair Ken Seiling, who served as a councillor and mayor in Woolwich prior to his long stint at the region, will also be offering up advice to prospective candidates.
“My advice to them is you should know your community, you should be involved in the community,” said Seiling of a good starting point for someone looking to run for local public office. “You should be prepared to spend time.”
He notes that while many people get into local politics based on an issue that’s piqued their interest, newly elected politicians quickly realize that they have to tackle a wide range of topics, and are charged with making decisions in the public interest.
“You have to recognize that there are many sides of many issues, and that at the end of the day, it’s what’s good for everybody that counts. If you feel that you can improve the life of residents in the community, then that’s a place for you to go,” said Seiling of joining municipal council.
In his own case, it was an interest in recreation – specifically a push to rehabilitate the old Elmira arena –that got him into municipal governance.
“I was on the recreation committee, and I realized the way it was structured back in the ’70s was that, although there were lay members on the committee along with councillors, the ones who carried the weight were the elected people. So if I wanted to move that agenda, which was actually the rebuilding of the arena at that time, I really had to get involved politically,” he explained.
The experiences of people like Seiling will be helpful in providing advice to those thinking of running for office, either in this year’s municipal vote on October 24 or in the future, said Rinne, adding people don’t really know what the job entails.
“I think that’s an issue for people, who say ‘I have a full time job, how can I possibly be a councillor?’ So sitting councillors are there to talk about how much time does this actually take and how much of an effort is needed to go into this. To have the opportunity to speak directly to people who have that lived experience is, we hope, something people find worthwhile,” she said.
For more information or to register for the event, visit the Woolwich Healthy Communities website.
