Election 2000 - It's all over but the crying
By Chris Fell Express Staff

Well municipal election 2000 is all over.

I have to admit I was quite surprised by the voting on Monday night, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there were so many good, experienced incumbent politicians running that it was almost impossible to tell how the election was going to go.

While analyzing the poll results as they came in Monday night it was clear to me the five candidates elected as councillors received support across the entire new municipality with the results being very close one through five.

However the race for Mayor and Deputy-Mayor clearly showed that in those cases voters were thinking along old municipal lines. Sydenham Reeve Deborah Young did very well in polls from Sydenham as would be expected. St. Vincent Reeve Gerald Shortt did very well in polls from St. Vincent. Meaford Mayor Doug Grant did well in Meaford polls, but wasn't able to wrack up the huge margins that both Young and Shortt received in their home territories.

In the race for Deputy Mayor Robert Reid cruised to an easy win when he demolished both Meaford councillors Bonnie Jolley and Bob Osman in the township areas. Then in town, predictably Jolley and Osman split the vote and Reid was assured an easy win. That race would have been far more interesting and down to the wire if only one town candidate had decided to run.

Election night was also very interesting in other areas of the county. Especially in the various races for Mayor - a fantastic development for Grey which has long been used to acclamations for its top council positions. Already we're seeing the positive results of restructuring - more choices come election time.

A broad smile broke out across my face Tuesday morning when I heard the results from our neighbours to the south - Grey Highlands. All four of the incumbent Euphrasia councillors running for re-election won seats on the new council including veteran Mayor Don McCausland who won narrowly over Jim Harrold by 67 votes! In this day and age of political apathy and cynicism it is rare to meet a politician that one can both like and respect, McCausland is one of those and I was pleased to see him become the first Mayor of Grey Highlands.

Generally I don't care who gets elected, but I was really pulling for the members of Euphrasia council because I like them and I enjoy covering their meetings. I have to admit I even campaigned a little for them. I bowl every Wednesday night in Ceylon which is part of Grey Highlands. Occasionally I was asked by fellow bowlers about who was running and I told them the folks from Euphrasia were all good candidates that I would vote for if given the chance.

How about Durham! Durham's Clerk/Treasurer Dan Sullivan took time off from his duties to run for Mayor and came within 288 votes of defeating long time Bentick Mayor Delton Becker. In the race for Deputy-Mayor Carol Lawrence was able to defeat long time Normanby Mayor Lawrie Weppler and retain her seat on county council. Poor Durham has been getting kicked around for so long it was nice to see its voters send a clear message to politicians from West Grey.

I was truly stunned to learn that The Blue Mountains Mayor Ross Arthur barely edged out challenger Peter Powell in a very close race. I'm sure Powell was a good candidate and ran a good campaign, but judging by the results it appears to me as if The Craigleith Ratepayers Association was willing to support any candidate to try and knock off Arthur. Perhaps some steamed developers upset by Arthur and his council's insistence that they follow the planning rules and guidelines of the town (imagine that, having to follow the rules) added steam to the defeat Arthur at all costs trend.

To me this is another example of a typical ratepayer association not knowing its head from its rear end. Defeating Arthur would have been a major mistake in my humble opinion. Arthur is a strong leader, a retired planner who knows every single municipal issue and has led The Blue Mountains through its amalgamation and massive growth quite admirably.

It is asinine to me that anybody would want to get him defeated from council, especially now, when The Blue Mountains is facing a development wave of unprecedented proportions. He seems to be the exact person you would want in charge of your municipality.

It will be three more years before we have a chance to vote in a municipal election again. Congratulations to all the candidates both defeated and elected, you all did a fine job.