The Municipal Race Is On!

With just 38 days remaining until the 2010 municipal elections across Ontario, the race is now on amongst those looking to lead our area municipalities for the next 4 years.
  We could debate for hours (with no clear winners) the performance of the "incumbent" Council members throughout the various municipalities in our area and indeed the Province.  Throughout recent weeks, there has been community dialogue and letters to the various papers advocating the widespread removal of all incumbent members of Council here in Collingwood and I suspect the same sentiment exists elsewhere in Ontario as well. Taxes are spiralling out of control, decisions being made contravene not only good business sense but often plain common sense and residents here and across the Province have seemingly had enough. 
  If I were an incumbent candidate I would be judging the performance of myself and fellow Council members over the past 4 years on one very simple indicator. Merely look around the room at the shear magnitude of candidates now running against you.  That is as clear an indicator as you are ever going to get about the performance current Councils and their members have rendered to their respective municipalities over the past term.  Knowing the role egos play, no doubt some incumbents here and elsewhere will smugly claim what a wonderful job they have done pointing the finger of blame at either the Mayor or their fellow Council members for failures of the past.  Those are the ones I hope fall the hardest and fastest as it's the only way they'll ever get the message.  In Collingwood we have 21 candidates running for 7 Councillor positions. In the Blue Mountains and Wasaga Beach, 13 and 12 candidates respectively are running for 5 Councillor positions.  Similarly, in Meaford  13 are running for 5 Councillor seats, in Grey Highlands 10 candidates are vying for 5 Councillor positions. Clearview Township has a "ward" system in place nonetheless in many of the wards 3 or 4 candidates are running offering voters lots of choices.  Further afield, the City of Barrie has 8 candidates running for the Mayor's position. Too bad Collingwood does not have more choices for this important position as well.
  I suspect many incumbents in this area and others will get some tough questions and treatment at upcoming all candidate meetings with the final verdict of their past 4 year's performance rendered on October 25th.  As one local candidate proclaims: "It's Time For Change" and there no doubt will be a lot of that.